Former Sri Lanka skipper Majeed felicitated by Zahira

RUGBY: Zahira College, Colombo one of the leading rugby playing schools in Sri Lanka has produced several ruggerites who went onto represent Sri Lanka with distinction and brought honour and fame to the school.

Seventeen of them were felicitated at a ceremony at Galle Face Hotel last week which was organised by the Sports Committee of the Group of Sixty.

The present rugby team of the school were also honoured at this ceremony for their excellent performance last year.

Zahira College which started playing rugby in the 1930s has produced several top players who went onto don the Sri Lanka Jersey.

Among them were A. H. A. Samad, Kuthdoos Doray, Abdul Majeed, Ibrahim 'Tanker' Hamid, Naleem Salim, Omar Sheriff and in recent years Azad Junkeer, Rizan Saldin, M. J. Mushtaq and Kishore Jehan.

But the most famous of them all was Abdul Majeed who represented Police as a superb wing three quarter from 1965 to 1972.

He represented Sri Lanka at the 1969 and 1970 Rugby Asiads and also against Bosuns RFC (1969) and Blackheath RFC (1970) and the finest moment of his rugby career came in 1971 when he was picked to lead Sri Lanka against the All England team captained by Budge Rogers.

Another player who was felicitated at this ceremony was Tony Amit who went onto represent the CH and FC from 1971 to 1977 - captaining the club in his final year and represented the SLRFU President's XV against several visiting teams.

After hanging up his boots he took to coaching and under his guidance CH and FC clinched the Triple Crown in 1990, 1992 and 1993 and was rewarded when he was entrusted with the task of coaching the national team in 1994 and 1995. He was also a leading 'A' Division referee in the 1980s and 1990s.