Nimal Maralande the famous ruggerite and cricketer-By Hafiz Marikar
Source:Dailynews
Kandy’s sports lovers remember Nimal Maralande who was a famous Trinity College and Sri Lanka rugby player and cricketer who was a classy fly half of the calibre of Archibald Perera, Ago Paiva, Mohan Sahayam, Glen Vanlangenberg, Irwin Howie, Frank Hubert, Omar Sheriff.
He first played rugby for his school in 1956 under the guidance of late Col. Bertie Dias and the leadership of DN Frank and that year Trinity was rated as the best school team.
His team mates were Ken de Joodt, MV Boteju, AJW Baalthazar, Franklyn Jacobs, Raji de Sylva, Gamini. Weerasinghe, U. Attanayake, J. Dias de Singhe, Uvais Odayar, RN de Alwis, Sena de Sylva, ASB Ellepola and Mike de Alwis and that year they won both the Bradby legs 15-0 and 11-0.
On leaving school Maralande turned up for practices at CR and FC at the request of his father AP Maralande who captained Trinity in 1921 and also captained the cricket team for three years.
Both father and son were proud winners of the schools highest award, the Ryde Gold Medal.
He also played for the All Ceylon Barbarians in 1959 against the Combined Oxford/Cambridge side and then for All Ceylon team in the All-India tournament in 1960, 1961, 1962 and 1963.
In 1964 he led the country before leading his club against the British Joint Forces XV. He was famous for his long kicks and the up-and-under and was also a fine cricketer during his school days.
It was said that had he played serious cricket like rugby, he would have been a top Sri Lanka cricketer.
He won the bowling prize in 1956, fielding award in 1957 and batting honours in 1958.
He won his cricket colours in 1955 and the Lion in 1959. Maralande led the Central Province Schools and the Combined Schools teams and while in Colombo played for NCC in the premier tournament.
He also won the AHR Joseph Challenge Cup in 1958 presented for all-round excellence in sports at Trinity and he was never a selfish player.
In rugby whenever he got the ball he sent it down the line while in cricket he was a team man.
Nimal Maralande was also a kind of schoolboy who had a matured and positive outlook with a fine sense of direction, caring and concern for his team-mates and friends.
It was no surprise when he was nominated as captain of the Ceylon Schools and in an unofficial Test against the Indian Schools in 1958 he scored an unbeaten 112.
With his right-arm bowling he had four wickets for 10 runs against the West Australian Schools in 1958 as well as making a superb knock of 77 not out which included three sixes and 10 fours. Nimal Maralande was named one of the most outstanding inter-collegiate cricketers of the decade along with players in the likes of ACM Lafir (St. Anthonys, Kandy), Anuruddha Polonowita and DHA Weerasinghe (Ananda), Lorensz Pereira, SC Samarasinghe, Brendon Gooneratne (Royal), Lionel Fernando (St. Benedicts), Clive Inman and HIK Fernando (St. Peters), Bryan Claessen and Lou Adhihetty (Wesley), Michael Tissera, PI Peiris, ML Idroos, Buddy Reid and Ronnie Reid (S. Thomas) and Lasantha Rodrigo and Stanley de Alwis (Prince of Wales).
His star-studded career never seemed to end. From a brilliant student and superstar sportsman at Trinity up to his untimely death at the comparatively young age of 58 years on July 31, 1997 in Australia while playing golf with Russell Van Rooyen on the Melbourne Golf Course, Nimal Maralande was an excellent personality.
