Sri Lanka ruggerite Jehan never played school rugby-by Althaf Nawaz
Source:Dailynews
Certain sportsmen who reached the climax in their sporting career had to pass through tough passage. Some of them started their career in less privileged schools but after associating with players from top clubs in town matured as top sportsmen, which enabled them to represent the country in that particular sport. Tuan Kishore Jehan was one of the players who never held a rugby ball in school, later took up rugby after his school career and turned out to be one of the finest rugby players donning the National jersey.
T.K. Jehan had a nickname called Chilaa and was born in 1983 in Chilaw. His father was late Tuan Mohamed Faleel an ex-serviceman who was in the Sri Lanka Army and was a recognized football player during his career there. His mother is Gnai Nihar Sheriff who is a housewife. He has two brothers T.M. Safras and Inshaf Faleel. He represented St. Mary s College, Chilaw from 1988 to 2001 where he completed his academic studies. With his build and body weight was an active member of the college Athletics team participating in the field events especially in Shot Putt and Discus Throw. Since his Alma Mater did not have rugby as a sporting event, was unable to gain an opportunity to play rugby for school. Nevertheless, he was appointed as the games Captain by his school and played cricket for the under-13 age group till the first XI. Later he represented Chilaw Marians Cricket Club in the 2000/01 seasons.
Eventually, he changed gears in his sporting career soon after his tenure with school. Since he did not have the opportunity to play rugby in school, he started handling the oval shaped ball through Rugby Development Squad ‘’ in 2001 under the guidance of rugby legend Hisham Abdeen. With that exposure, he started playing rugby for Old Zahirians Sports Club, Maradana from 2002 to 2005 seasons engaging in competitive rugby. While he was playing for Old Zahirians he was selected for the Sri Lanka Rugby squad and represented the Sri Lanka National team in mid-2005 where he subsequently made his debut against Singapore. Later he migrated to the hill capital to don the Kandy jersey and locked horns for them from 2006 to 2017 in his favourite position in the front row as a Prop forward. He established a regular place there and competed in several tournaments for them. During his career with Kandy they won ten League Championships along with an equal number of Clifford Cup knock out tournaments. As a National Player, he was in the Sri Lanka winning team of the Asian Five Nation Championship in 2009 in Singapore under the captaincy of Pradeep Liyanage, in 2012 in Sri Lanka team under the captaincy of Yoshitha Rajapaksa and in 2014 in Philippines under Fazil Marija s captaincy before he finally hung up his boots in 2016.
After his retirement from competitive rugby as a player he opted to take up coaching and got qualified in the World Rugby Coaching certificate – level 2. In 2017 represented the under-16 Kandy Rugby Academy as the Head coach and had a successful tour of Paris at the World Games. Later went on to complete the coaching course at Rugby Academy of Ireland in 2018 based in Ireland. He was entrusted as the forward coach of CR and FC in the 2019/20 season. He likes to extend his sincere gratitude to his former coaches who were instrumental in guiding him to reach success which consisted of Hisham Abdeen, late Goerge Simpkin and Johan Taylor. At present he is employed as Associate Manager at LOLC Finance PLC in the Al-Falaah unit in Kandy.
His wife is Benazir Begum and the three children are Maasha, Hanik and Mansha.
