Former Police Rugby Star Bagoos Sourjah dies

M Farook Lantra

Former Police rugby kicking Mastreo Tuan Bagoos Sourjah passed away on December 28, 2012 after a brief illness at his residence at Enderamulla. This was revealed by his brother T A H Sourjah, former Inspector of Police.

Bagoos who was 77 years old, was an old boy of Zahira College, Colombo who joined the Police after his studies. He then joined the rugby team who played with distinction. He was the most famous of them all because he gave Police a place in the Clifford Cup final when he converted a penalty kick in dying moments of the game in a hotly contested Cup semi-final against the famed CR and FC in 1967.

CR bristled with classy-players such as Sari de Sylva, Mohan Sahayam, Eric Roles, Bumpy Jayasekera, Mohamed Azain and Reggie Bartholomeusz. On that particular day the Police team was led by S Sivendran, a tough hooker who had brought the Police team from ‘B’ Division to the top rank. Siva as he was known was an Old Peterite and a fighter all the way. On that day Police ousted CR and FC by 9 points to 6 in the Cup semi-final at Havelock Park and many stay at home fans refused to believe that the famed CR team had been beaten by the Police until they read the news on the following day's newspapers. The Policemen went down fighting to Havelocks SC 3-11 in the final.

After the semi-final Sivendran hugged all his teammates and praised his officers for giving him all the encouragement to win. A fitting finale. The following day Field Force Headquarters SP Thurairatnam accompanied Bagoos Sourjah to Inspector General's Office and the IGP at that time Aleric Abeygunawardena promoted Sourjah to the rank of Sub Inspector of Police.

In 2004 Bagoos Sourjah was honoured by the Police Sports Club at the Senior Police Officers Mess and as a token of appreciation a cheque was presented to this kicking mastreo Bagoos Sourjah by the former IGP Indra de Silva, for Sourjah's enormous contribution to Police Rugby.

May Bagoos Sourjah attain Jannathal Firdouse.