Sports promoter Premadasa remembered-by Hafiz Marikar

Source:Dailynews

Today May 1, the sports loving people of Kandy will remember the late President R. Premadasa on his 28th death anniversary.

He was also a sportsman and sports benefactor who did his best for the country. The name of R. Premadasa will go down in the annals of our history not only as a nation-builder but also as a great sports promoter.

He gave his best to everyone irrespective of caste and race. He is the man who built the Khettarama Stadium for cricket and after his death it was named as R. Premadasa Stadium.

Today this cricket venue can be rated as one of the best in the world. For football he re-developed the Sugathadasa Stadium and gave a facelift to the Henry Pedris Park in Colombo.

The game of football came naturally to him, perhaps because football was identified with the poor man.

As a young footballer, he learnt the game at Keselwatte in Colombo. He introduced a rugby tournament together with the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union under the presidency of YC Chang. This tournament was known as the R. Premadasa Trophy and became very popular among clubs and subsequently he introduced it among schools. Even after taking to politics, Premadasaa promoted the game among parliamentarians. He gave his support to football’s controlling body, the Football Federation of Sri Lanka.

Today, all sports have realized his loss. It’s a void which will be very difficult to fill because he had so much to offer for sports and the country.