Shanthikumar the iron man of Army and Sri Lanka rugby-by Althaf Nawaz

Source:Dailynews

St.Thomas’ College, Matara is a prominent school located in the Southern Province which has played a phenomenal role in producing several academics and sportsmen who made their ‘Alma Mater’ proud locally and Internationally. J K Shanthikumar was one of the yesteryear sportsmen who had a prolific sporting career later representing the country in the game of rugby.

Shanthikumar was well known as ‘Yakadaya’ in the sporting circles and was born in 1958 in Matara. His father was J.K. Gilbert a clerk by profession and J.A.Wimalawathi his mother worked as a nurse. Shanthikumar continued his school career with St. Thomas’, Matara and was very optimistic in maintaining good physique . He decided to participate in sports and played soccer and cricket from the beginning of his school career. He captained the school cricket and soccer teams and towards the latter part of the school career, was more keen on body building, eventually becoming the ‘Mr YMBA Matara’, when he was only 17 years old. In his final school big match cricket encounter against St. Servatius College, he was instrumental in saving them from certain defeat, playing a patient knock occupying the crease for almost five sessions.

After his school career, he joined the Sri Lanka Army. There, he went on to be involved in soccer and cricket. During a regimental soccer match, an unforgettable incident occurred. An officer held him by his hand and said he should come for regimental rugby practices on the next day as they were in need of players for the Army rugby team.He was none other than late General Denzil Kobbakaduwa. This was the turning point of his sporting career and joined the Sinha Regiment to engage in rugby, until then he

never had any idea of what this oval shaped ball game was. His first rugby coaches were W.O.I. Piyathissa and late Major W.R. Bandara who taught him the basics of the game. Under them, he was privileged to represent the Sinha regiment team within six months and within one year competed with the Army team. It was General Denzil Kobbakaduwa who coached the Army side. The journey with them started in 1979 and surged ahead till 1999, an undisputed two-decade journey before he hung up his boots, which made him enter the record books, by becoming another player to don the rugby jersey for such a long time.

He made some experiments in his playing style with a little bit of extra aggression which was quite successful. He captained the Army team in 1989.

His indefatigable performance enabled him to get the National call in 1988 and went on to lock horns until 1990 with them. He played for Sri Lanka at two Rugby Asiads in Hong Kong in 1988 and Colombo in 1990 followed by several other tournaments.

He also continuously represented the Defence Services team from 1982 to 1999. While he was a prominent figure in the Sri Lanka rugby team, he also represented the Sri Lankan Kabaddi team in 1993, when that sport was first introduced to Asian Games. Apart from rugby, he also represented the Army Cricket team in the 1980/81 seasons. Represented the regiment soccer team from 1979 to 1990, Army Archery team in 1988 and 1989 and Army boxing team simultaneously.

After his tenure as a player, he opted to take up coaching and coached the junior academy of St. Peter’s College way back in 1993. He was invited to coach the Army ‘B’ division rugby team from 2000 to 2010 and his last appointment was at Wesley College from 2012 to 2014.

He is grateful to a few special people who helped him as a village boy who came to Army without even knowing what rugby is, later transforming him to become the cynosure of all eyes in his amazing sporting career.

The first person in this list is late General Denzil Kobbakaduwa who changed his sporting career and was also instrumental in him playing rugby. Secondly, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka for supporting his career as he encouraged and pushed him towards achieving his goals. The retired senior DIG Nimal Lewke for the guidance given, WOI Piyathissa, Late Major R.W Bandara, Colonel G.H Ariyaratne, Brigadier Japana. Jayawardhana, Colonel Jayantha Kalu Weerasinghe, Brigadier Justus Rodrigo , Jeff Matheson ( national coach) , S.W Chang and his fellow players who played with him throughout his career.

His wife is R.P D. Ramani Jayawickrama and son is Dilshan Jayawickrama