Ranjan enjoys success of Sri Lanka carrom

Thushan Jayasuriya

Ranjan Fernando, the coach behind the success of newly crowned Carrom World Champion Nishantha Fernando, is probably one of the most important names in Sri Lanka carrom. As a person who contributed much towards the progress carrom in Sri Lanka, he always looks for the best he can do. Having clinched the national carom championship four times and served as a national coach, he possesses lot of experiences in carom scenario.

He has produced some champion carromites including Chamil Cooray, Viraj Fernando, Rangika Fernando and the world champion Nishantha Fernando.

Ranjan won the men's national carrom championship in 1971, 1972, 1977 and 1979. In 1988, he was elected as the vice president of Sri Lanka Carrom Association and did his best to uplift the sport. Fernando was in the national carrom selection committee in 1994.

In 1996, he was appointed as a national coach to expand the sport to schools and he organized an inter-schools carrom tournament to popularize the sport among the school children. In the same year he launched the book "Carrom Thakshanaya" (Carrom Technics) to be educate people about carrom.

But now, his valuable service has forgotten to many people. Though he has produced a number of carrom champions he was not given the proper place he should be.

"The higher officials in the carrom association doesn't have much sense about the sport and they commences the tournaments in a selfish manner. At least they are not concerned about giving good publicity. And there is no proper coach to train the carromites. The work for the benefit of carromites are not much satisfactory "said Fernando.

But he is happy about the fact that he was able to produce a world class carromite - Nishantha Fernando. He hopes to give his support further to the development of carom. Ranjan serves as the carom coach for St.Peter's College Colombo, OLV Convent Moratuwa and University of Colombo.