by Hafiz Marikar in Kandy
After a lapse of a few years, the Presidents Trophy knock out rugby championship is once again on show at Longden Place.

This popular tournament came in to being in 1984, when R. Premadasa was the then Prime Minister. It was organised by the SLRFU and the Sugathadasa Stadium Sports Committee.

Late President R. Premadasa, great lover of sports, was keen on introducing a rugby tournament to be conducted at the Sugathadasa Stadium. He invited Malik Samarawickrema for a discussion and this is how the tournament came into being in 1984. At that time the SLRFU president was Nizar Haji Omar, and the committee comprised top names such as Y. C. Chang, Malik Samarawickrema, Dushantha Samarasekara, Lionel Almeida and Kishin Butani, to name a few.

R. Premada’s great interest was to see rugby played under lights, and Malik Samarawickrema did the needful. The teams which took part in the first year were Kandy SC, CR&FC, Air Force SC, Army SC, Navy SC, Havelock SC Police SC and CH&FC.

CR&FC won the inaugural tournament and it was considered one of the best organised tournaments that year.

In the following year, the late R. Premadasa became even more keener and wanted to include the schools. This was done and a school match at was played at 5 p.m. followed by the Club game which was played under lights. The first set of schools that played in the tournament in 1985 were Zahira, Ananda, Dharmaraja, St. Thomas, Isipathana, Royal and Trinity.

As time went on, this became a popular tournament, and was a well organised one. But sad to say, after R. Premadasa death, the name of the tournament was changed. This was done in 1995 and it was title as the President’s Trophy. The venue was shifted from the Sugathadasa Stadium to Longden Place. With all this happening the glamour went out of this tournament. During the apst couple of years this tournament was not held

This year it has reached the semi final stage and at least now they can play the Final at the Sugathadasa Stadium and revert back to its former name the ‘R. Premadasa’ Trophy. Next year, they should rope in the schools too.

There was no need to change the name of the Trophy to President’s just because it was started during the Prime Ministership of R. Premadasa.

What a short memories we have.