Fathers and sons captaining in sports

ELMO RODRIGOPULLE

Very rarely do you get fathers and sons captaining their respective schools or opposing schools, clubs or country in their chosen field of sport and when it happens it is indeed a moment to savour, enjoy and celebrate.

And this honour has fallen to Angelo Perera when he leads the Peterites in the Battle of the Saints against St. Joesph's on Friday and Saturday at the ground.

Angelo's father Nalin captained St. Joseph's at rugby in 1986 and now his son Angelo is captaining St. Peter's College at cricket, and this is a very rare occurence when one considers that the father excelled at rugby and son now in cricket.

I had the opportunity of meeting Nalin and the first question I posed him was: How come that you were a rugby fanatic, captaining the Darley Road school and how is it that your son has taken to cricket and captaining St. Peter's at that?

"It is just one of those things, said father Nalin. My sons from their early days showed a fondness for cricket and they looked naturals at that. So as a caring father I told them, If cricket is that they have chosen, then go ahead and see that you excel at that," I told them.

And they certainly have excelled and it would be a proud father and mother who would be taking in the action when the Saints battle it out for supremacy at the 75th encounter.

While the elder brother will be captaining the Bambalapitiya school, his younger brother would also be sporting the SPC cap and that is Denham.

Angelo is a right hand stylish bat who has scored heavily this season and has spun many a batsmen out with his left arm tweakers. He is good all-round material and if he continues should go a long way.

Brother Denham is a right hand bat and right arm bowler.

Nalin began his rugby career at SJC in 1983 captaining the school in his final year which was 1986. He was a hard working number 8 and one of the best in that position of that time.

In fact the Darley Road school enjoyed one of its best years in rugby in 1986 when Nalin captained. They had a victory against Isipatana and drew with Royal and Trinity, losing only to St. Peter's. The draws against Isipatana and Trinity two of the strongest sides in that era was really memorable for Nalin and when asked said with a twinkle in his eye: "We played the better rugby on that day."

When Nalin captained in 1986 he had with him his brother Shamin who was a hard running wing three quarter. And in the year following Shamin led the Josephians also at rugby.

On leaving school brothers Nalin and Shamin turned out with much success for the red shirts (CR and FC) and went on to sport national colours.

And after 23 long years Nalin's sons Angelo and Denham will be padding up against their traditional rivals St. Joseph's.

Father Nalin and uncle Shamin captained SJC at rugby and will Denham also captain SPC now that his elder brother Angelo has shown the way? Indications are that he will.