Veediya Bandara was an excellent centre-by Althaf Nawaz
Source:Dailynews
Some of the sportsmen who reached the climax in certain sports are highly influenced by their family especially the father and the brothers. Centre Veediya Bandara Dissanayake was one of them who was encouraged and supported to take up rugby by his father who was also engaged in sports during his hey days.
Veediya had a nickname ‘Bande’ and was born in 1980 in Narahenpita. His father is Premasiri Dissanayake a former Isipathanian who excelled in several sports and later worked as a Seaman sailing in ships. His mother
was Subadra, a housewife. He has three siblings with brother Manjula also attending Isipathana while Erandathi and Arundathi are his sisters. He was over five feet in height and had a playing weight of 95 kgs at the time of playing competitive rugby. From his younger days he had a liking towards
sports where he witnessed his father engage in sports. Like father like son-Veediya Bandara was enrolled at Isipathana junior school and went on to complete his higher studies there.
He started handling the oval shaped ball at the age of eleven years in 1991. He accrued the basic knowledge of rugby and played in the college ‘B’ team for two years later got promoted to the ‘A’ team in 1993 and went to win the All Island Championship in the under-13 age group defeating Royal in the final. His first junior coaches were Sanath Asanjaya and Hyacinth Kumara. Then he represented the under-15 college team in 1994 led by Shamly Nawaz and in 1995 led by Charith Kodagoda. They won the All Island Championship and toured Malaysia to participate in the 10-a-side tournament in Kuala Lumpur. In the 1995/96 season, he represented the second XV college team whilst competing there, he was called to don the first XV jersey in 1997 as a fresher. That side was led by Vajira Hewage and coached by Kelum Gunaratne which consisted of some top players like Shamly Nawaz, Sajith Mallikarachchi, Kapila Silva, Janaka de Silva, Rangana Senadeera, Krishantha Chandran and Hamesh Gunaratne who eventually represented the Sri Lanka Junior National team. He made his debut at the Asian Games with the Junior side in the tour of Chinese Taipei in 1998 led by Shamly Nawaz and coached by S.W. Chang. He represented College rugby team in 1997,1998 and 1999 led by Vajira Hewage, Shamly Nawaz, and Krishantha Chandran respectively. During this period, they were under the watchful eyes of Kelum Gunaratne 1998 and S.W. Chang in1999.They participated in the Black 10’s rugby tournament in Singapore in 1999 winning the Cup Championship. During his tenure as a player they remained unbeaten triple Champs in 1997 and 1999 years. In his last year with the first XV rugby team in 1999 they won the 10-a-side Milo League, the President’s Trophy knockout tournament followed by the Singer International Rugby Sevens played in Kandy. He received the college colours on three occasions
While being a school boy, he also represented the Old Pathanian Rugby Club in 1997 which turned out to be a historic moment in his rugby career. During that season they won four games and lost the semi-finals against CR and FC at Havelock Park. While playing there, he was called to join the Sri Lanka National Rugby squad as a standby centre three quarter for the Rugby Asiad led by Viraj Prashantha coached jointly by Nimal Lewke and Ana Saranapaala.
After the school season, he joined Sampath Bank and represented the Bank Sevens rugby team. He wore the CR and FC jersey making his debut in club Rugby with the ‘A’Division side led by Savantha de Saram playing the league in which they were runners up to CH and FC and , the President Trophy Knockouts where they lost the final to Kandy in Nittawela . He had a rare occasion of participating in the Singapore Sevens tournament in Singapore with the Lankan team consisting of five Isipathanians with Bandula Mallikarachchi, Shamly Nawaz, Viraj Prasantha, Champika Nishantha and him along with Pavithra Fernando Asanga Rodrigo, Alfred Hensman from Royal and Kishan Musafer from Wesley and Erosh Fernando from St. Peters respectively.
In the 1999/00 season the National selectors Tikiri Marimbe and Lionel Almeida asked him to join the Sri Lanka XV-a-side team against Australian Northern Territory team. He was picked along with the other
legendary three quarters line consisting of Champika Nishantha, Sajith Mallikarachchi, Manjula Pathirana, Indrajith Bandaranayake, Radhika Hettiarachchi and Nalaka Weerakkody where they played against China
and Malaysia. He then played along with Shantha Rohana, Dunstan de Silva, Asoka Jayasena, Shamly Nawaz, Pradeep Basnayake, Ansar Buksh and Kapila Dilshan in several tournaments under leadership of Asoka Jayasena coached by Nimal Lewke.
Apart from his tenure at CR, he had the opportunity to join Kandy through former Sri Lankan prop forward Shantha Rohana. Along with him Nalaka Weerakkody, late Sajith Mallikarachchi, and Kapila Silva had given him the unstinted support while playing for Kandy and National team from 2000
to 2003. He would like to extend his sincere gratitude to his National Rugby coaches late George Simkin, Nimal Lewke and Ana Saranapala who gave lots of knowledge and encouragement during the training sessions with the National team to develop his skills. He also represented National Sevens rugby team in a tournament in Dubai and Malaysia where the Lankan team was led by Indrajith Bandaranayake and consisted of Nalaka Weerakkody, Sanjeewa Jayasinghe, RadHika Hettiarachchi and coached by Asanga Senaviratne and C. P. Abeygunawardana.
After his unfortunate shoulder surgery, he was out from rugby for a year and rejoined CR to play where Shamly Nawaz led them. He continued the season and joined CH and FC led by Sameera Wijesinghe and coached by Graham Raux before calling it a day from his eventful rugby career.
His wife Aruni worked as a chef in Auckland and currently involved with her Own Business and they have a child called Omill.
