‘Kumala’ Mohamed, a passionate football player, coach and referee-By Hafiz Marikar

T. ‘Kumala’ Mohamed

T. ‘Kumala’ Mohamed, a retired footballer played as an attacking midfielder and a forward is considered as one of the best headers of the ball in the game. He was also a top ball controller. A skillful dribbler, he started his football at Deyanawella Play grounds and studied at Deyanawella Vidyalaya. Later he erned a reputation as a player coach and referee. He gave his best for his school and guided the school football team to the top winning the inter school championship in Kandy. He often frustrated opponents but was always a favourite with fans.

He was born in Deyanawella in Kandy, a village that has produced some top footballers like M.S Perera, Sunil Samarasinghe, S.Nelson, R.N. Nishab, M. Jamaldeen, M.R. Zarook , S.A. Weersasinghe to name a few. Kumala Mohamed was a passionate footballer and dreamt about having a football club in Deyanawella. He inaugurated Sunrise Sports Club in 1960, where late S. Selvaratnam gave a big hand and in 1970 late L.B. Badewella got into the club and changed the name to Sunrise Football & Athletic Club.

Kumala Mohamed made Deyanawella popular through football. He played for the school and also for Kandy District and Central Province teams, during his days with Sunrise F & AC, in 1972 the Sports Ministry organized a national sports festival and Central and UVA province entered the finals where Central Province clinched a massive victory, thanks to Kumala. The tournament was well organized by Sports Officer Joe Ariyapala.

With his talent Kumala and some of the Deyanawella footballers were recruited by the Prisons, as prison officers, which helped them to do well in sports and also helped Prisons to excel in sports. Kumala played football, hockey and cricket for Prisons Department, at that time Officer In Charge of sports at Prisons was late G.A.K. Abeysekara. Kumala also led the All Ceylon Prisons side in football and the first commissioner General of Prisons of that era H.G. Dharmadasa too helped all sportsmen who represented Prisons.

After retiring from the Prisons Kumal’s love for the game did not end. He was into football refereeing, and uplifted the spirit of the game for many years. Kumal was invited by the Sri Lnka Football Referees Association, which helped him to attend many training programs locally and internationally. He came out as a referee under the Kandy Association Football League, all his refereeing at school and club level was done free of charge. He also helped organize Inter DRO division football tournaments, which were organized by Sports Officers of the Kandy District, that too he gave a free hand. He was a class one qualified referee. At that time late T.Perimpanayagam who was the president of the Sri Lanka Football Referees Association was keen to highlight Kamala’s good work.

After stepping down from refereeing, he shared his football knowledge skills in coaching. He first coached Dharmaraja College. Later he was invited to take up coaching of the Kandy Association Football League team.