Dinesh the rugby star from Gampaha-by Althaf Nawaz

Source:Dailynews

Some of the past rugby players who reached the climax in their career hailed from schools which took to the game recently. Later they joined schools who are in the forefront of the game playing competitive rugby ending up as outstanding players. Dinesh Sanjeewa was one of them who launched his career from a school at his native place Gampaha later joined a Colombo school before he became a fully-fledged ruggerite to surge ahead to end up wearing the National jersey.

Dinesh was born in 1983 in Gampaha district and had a a height of over six feet and a playing weight of 110 kgs. His father G. Lionel was an Electrical Foreman and mother is K.D. Malanee a housewife. He has two siblings with elder brother Nalin Chaminda and younger sister Ayanthi Anuradha. He started his schooling career from the primary education at Bandaranayake College, Gampaha which is a renowned school in the country. They never had rugby as a sport but in 2001 they introduced it. But he embarked on his sporting career by playing cricket from the under-13 to 17 team at school while sparing his free time with other sports like football and wrestling. With the introduction of rugby in 2001, the college formed a rugby team and he attended a few practice sessions. His first coach was Sujith Kodagoda who identified that he had the potential for rugby and encouraged him to play. He then represented the school team in 2001 as second centre while not forgetting the days he used to play tap rugby with friends every weekend, which made the game more interesting.

In 2001, the local rugby governing body SLRFU published a newspaper advertisement that they are looking for players from outstations as he applied and was selected to Sri Lanka rugby development squad which was under the purview of former legend Hisham Abdeen. He rates him as his mentor in the game of rugby. Along with him it was Tony Wimalasuriya and late B.K Ramachandran who handled the SLRFU Development squad as coaches. In 2002, he was offered a rugby scholarship by Ananda College, Colombo and represented the school team as second centre where they were playing ‘A’ division rugby as he donned the school jersey from 2001 to 2003. They ended runner up in the Plate Championship at the Singer Sevens coached by Hisham Abdeen and Tony Wimalasuriya.

After completing his school’s rugby career, he joined Old Zahirians SC in 2003 and for his luck while playing an under-24 match, Late George Simpkin (Sri Lanka Rugby Coach ) was watching the game along with Hisham Abdeen. Simpkin advised him to move from second centre to flanker or second row due to his height and build. Later the same year, he was called for the Sri Lanka National pool to represent both Sevens and XV’s and toured for Bangkok Sevens in 2003, while playing for Old Zahirians from 2003 to 2005 seasons coached by Hisham Abdeen and Tony Wimalasuriya. In 2004, he got the job at Seylan Bank and won the Mercantile Sevens for them in 2006 and 2007,and the Bank gave him the fullest support throughout his rugby career from 2004 -2014.

He then joined CH and FC in 2005 and played five seasons for them. In 2009 in the league tournament, he scored nine tries including two hat tricks against Havelocks and Army. Same year, he represented All India rugby league for the Bangalore team as a foreign player. He captained CH in 2010 coached by Tony Amit and Bimal Perera. He then moved to the hill capital in 2011 to join Kandy SC and played for the team which won both the League and Knockout tournament. They also won the Clifford Cup in 2012 and later emerged runners up in 2013 in the same tournament. The Kandy team was jointly coached by Johan Taylor and Neil Foote.

While he was competing for CH in 2005, he had his National team call and represented them until 2014. His first appearance was in XV-a- side fixture in 2005 under the captaincy of Late Sajith Mallikarachchi against

Singapore after which he established a regular place in the Sri Lanka team during his nine-year tenure. His final appearance was against Japan in 2014 at the Asian Championship involving the top five teams in Asia. He played many XV’s tournaments in a few other countries like Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Thailand, Chinese Taipei, Kazakhstan and India. During his career, he was coached by George Simpkin, Rob Yule, Dawie Snyman, Johan Taylor, Ellis Meachen, Ravin Du Plessis and Leonard De Zilva. He was appointed as vice captain of the Sri Lanka President’s XV in 2010. In 2014, he moved to Qatar and played for Doha rugby Club (DRFC) until his retirement from the game in 2017. DRFC team became the champions of the Arabian Gulf Premiership for the first time in their club history in the 2014/15 season. They were Gulf Top six winners 2014/15. Winners of West Asia Club Rugby Championship in 2015.

He has some unblemished memories starting up in 2005 donning the National jersey and winning the match against Singapore, Beating Kazakhstan in Sri Lanka in 2005 after losing away match in the first round later and winning the competition. Ending up as third place in the match against Hong Kong in 2006. Winning the Asian Five Nations Division 1 tournament in 2010 and 2013. Playing against the Japanese team in 2014 which later defeated the mighty South Africa in Rugby World Cup in 2015.

Currently he is the Co-Founder of ORYX Junior Rugby Academy in Doha and coaching the Kids. He also worked for Doha Bank from 2015 to 2020. Currently working for a Dibsy.one, FinTech start up in Qatar.