Kumudapperuma misbehaves again
Sampath Bank win Colombo Super League

by Rex Clementine

Police Sports Club's Buddika Kumudapperuma’s poor court behaviour took the glamour off the grand final of the Colombo Super League 2003 basketball tournament under lights at the Depot Police Courts, Bambalapitiya yesterday. Although many expected the game to be a thriller, the policemen couldn’t give a fight to Sampath Bank as the bankers thrashed the cops by a massive 26 points. Right from the beginning the cops were trailing and at the end of the first quarter the scoreboard read 21-10. The bankers extended the lead in the second quarter and took the game away from them as they maintained a lead of 19 points. The score was 43-24.

With the game going away from police, Buddika Kumudapperuma, a sub-inspector of police, looked to have lost his cool. On several occasions he was seen elbowing and pushing players, particularly Heshan Premachandra of Sampath Bank, but the incidents didnattract the notice of the referees. Towards the end of the third quarter, with police trailing by a huge margin and Sampath Bank going for the kill, Kumudapperuma once again pushed Premachandra and elbowed him after the referees had halted the ball. The referee noticed the incident and gave the player a disqualifying foul and sent him off immediately. Together with Kumudapperuma, Nailn Weerawardene of Police, another sub-inspector was disqualified for the same offense. Incidentally several senior police officers were present at the ground and several of them were even sitting on the Police bench.

Kumudapperuma is also the secretary of the referee’s association. He was also involved in a similar incident in the game against Moratuwa earlier on in the tournament. He was also booed by a certain section of the crowd while others chanted, "send him off," send him off,"

For the winners, Heshan Premachandra played exceptionally well scoring 36 points while Chameera Ratnayake scored 18. Chamath Danawansha made 10. For the losers, Michael Priyadarshan (34), playing in his last match for Police, top scored with 12 points. M.K. Shiran also scored 12. Asanka Suvaris, playing with a groin injury, made 10.

Meanwhile in the women’s competition, Track Master won another one-sided game by a massive 40 points. At the short whistle, the winners were leading 34-10 and they went onto win the game 76-36. For the winners, Premila Fernando top scored with 11 points while Chamari Abeywardene and Inoka Sandamali made 10 points each. For the losers, Rukshika Wijesinghe scored 11 while Jayaliya Kumari scored 10.