Centre Yugantha proud product of Ananda-by Althaf Nawaz

Source:Dailynews

Ananda College, Colombo is the leading Buddhist school in the country which has contributed immensely towards the success of Education while unearthing sportsmen excelling in various sporting disciplines, where some of them reached the pinnacle by representing the country at International tournaments. Yugantha Karunarathne who had an illustrious rugby career was one of the finest products of Ananda who brought honour and fame to his school and country wearing the National jersey.

Yugantha, better known as ‘Yuga’ in rugby circles, was born in 1975 in Colombo. His father was late Lt. H.K. Karunaratne who served in the Sri Lanka Army and a former Olympic and, Asian Gold Medallist and an Army Boxer. Nimala Athukorala was his mother, a housewife while he also had a brother Rohana.

Yugantha was admitted as a primary class student at Ananda in 1987 and went on to complete his higher studies in 1994. He was a stockily built player and mingled with his friends in various sports including rugby in his housing scheme in Raddolugama where he lived. There they used to play tap rugby with some senior boys representing various schools engaged in competitive rugby. Eventually this pumped him up to handle the oval shaped ball at the school level and took up playing from the under-15 team when he was 14

years old. Lucky Peiris was his first coach who taught the basics of the game. From there, he matured as an experienced player and he captained the college first XV in 1994 before leading them the under-17 team in 1992. He locked horns with the first XV from 1992 to1994. In 1992 they became runner-up in the R. Premadasa Trophy losing to Isipathana 9-15 in a nail biter encounter which was captained by Nalinda Dabare coached by S.W. Chang assisted by Andrew Soosai. In 1993 they toured Singapore for the Blacks Tens Rugby Tournament where they became the champions making history as the first ever Sri Lankan school to win which had teams from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Sri Lanka. Then they toured Malaysia

for an under-18 tournament the same year reaching up to Plate semi-finals.

During his tenure as captain in 1994 Ananda became third in the Schools ‘A’ division league table behind Royal and S. Thomas which feat they never achieved in their rugby history. In the semi-final of that tournament they went down to St. Peters 6-5 after a close match. Meanwhile, in the Sevens tournament they lost to St Thomas in the semis. His team was categorised as one of the finest teams ever Ananda produced and consisted of Amila Dissanayake, Hamdoon Booso, Wasantha Ranasinghe, Prageeth Seneviratne,

Sanjaya Perera, Aroshana Fernado, Kamaldeen, Deepal Wijesuriya, Duminda Jayaweera, Vikum Madhdhumage few to be named. He also played Soccer and Badminton when time permitted.

While he was competing at school, was selected for Sri Lanka schools Western Province team in 1994 for ‘Kobbekaduwa Trophy’ where they beat the Central Province team. He scored both tries in that match which enabled him to be selected for the Sri Lanka Schools team playing as a centre

three quarter. Unfortunately, that school’s team never picked up due to cancellation of the tour which was under the purview of coach Marco De Silva. Soon after leaving school, he joined Havelocks in 1995 and donned their jersey till 1999 to continue playing in club rugby. He was able to get an opportunity to play in the ‘A’ division in his first year of joining. They were coached by Ana Saranapala and was captained by Thushara Jayalath. The other players who played alongside with him were Jale Salusalu, Graham Raux,

Sunder Niranjan, Manoj Weerasinghe, Nalinda Dabare, Thusitha Peiris, Chaminda Rupasinghe, Nishantha Chanaka(Alex) few to be named. Havelocks had a good season in 1995 beating the much fancied Kandy and

other clubs and finished third in the league. In 1997, he was appointed as captain of Havelock under-24 side and went down fighting to CR in the finals by a slender margin. In 1998 and 1999 had a mixed season with

Havelocks. Had the opportunity to play along with players like Sanjeewa Jayasinghe, Leonard De Zilva, Ruwan Suranga, Chanka Jayaweera, Dexter Fonseka, Nalin Dissanayaka, Roshara Alles, Sanjeewa Abeygunawardana, Nalin Wijegunawardana, Nishantha Bopearachchi. He then crossed over to CH and FC and played in two seasons starting from 2000 to 2003 followed by 2005/06. When he joined them in 2000 was coached by Tony Amit and assisted by M.D. Ifthikar. They had co-captains Nazim Mohamed and Ajith Upawansa. The greatest achievement there was winning the League in 2000. after 18 years He played along with Thushara Jayalath, Bimal Perara, Graham Raux, Nishantha Dias, Sashika Corray, Sameera Wijesinghe, Duminda De Silva, Nalin Dissanayaka, Milinda Jayasinghe and late Saranga Jayakody.

In 2001 they became Sevens runner-up losing to Havies. In 2003 had a good season becoming second in the league behind Kandy coached by New Zealander Matt Lee.

They beat Kandy at Maitland Crescent in the final but unfortunately lost the championship due to overall points.

His National career with the Sri Lanka team was launched from 1997 and competed for them till 2002. In1997, he joined the squad for Australian Northern Territories tests held in Sri Lanka led by Priyantha Ekanayake coached by Ana Saranapala. His illustrious National career continued and in

1997 played in the World Cup Qualifiers in Malaysia and Chinese Taipei captained by Priyantha Ekanayake coached by Ana Saranapala. Same year they toured Hong Kong for several tests under the same captain and coach. In 1998 the Tests between Sri Lanka and Hong Kong under-24 was led by Harris Omar winning both tests. In1999, the Tests against Chinese Taipei were captained by Asoka Jayasena and Coached by Nimal Lewke. Same year represented the team at 13th Asian Games both Sevens and XV’s captained by Viraj Prashantha coached by Nimal Lewke followed by the Hong Kong Sevens led by Indrajith Bandaranayake coached by Nimal Lewke. In 2000/01 at the Singer Sri Lanka Sevens, in 2001 Shanghai Sevens, in 2001 in Hong Kong Sevens, in 2002 Rugby Asiad in Thailand coached by former All Blacks coach late George Simpkin and Tony Amit.

While he was competing in rugby, he joined Sampath Bank in 1996 and served till 2003 and played rugby for them in the Mercantile tournaments winning several Championships receiving Most Promising Player’s award. In 2003 left for the UK for employment purposes and represented Old Emmanuel Club for the Surrey League division 1 and 2 in rugby. In 2009, he moved to Australia for higher studies and got his Master of Accounting at Australian Catholic University. By profession he is a qualified Chartered Accountant and Currently working as a Finance Manager at a Medical related company in

Melbourne. His wife is Piumi Dooldeniya and the elder child Dulhan Older son is currently studying in Melbourne University while the second son Yevin is still schooling.