Fazil to coach Kandy once more

Wednesday, 21 October 2020 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Shamseer Jaleel

Fazil Marija

Fazil Marija, one of the legends of Sri Lankan Rugby, will once more retain his position as the Head

Coach of the defending league champions, Kandy Sports Club for the 2020/2021 rugby season which is likely to kick off with a late start due to COVID-19 impact in the country, with the arrival of a second wave.

Fazil will miss the service of his forwards coach, Viraj Prasanna. The former CR & FC and Sri Lanka player decided to head back to Colombo due to his personal commitments, after completing his short stint with the up country club. Former Kandy SC player, Buddhika Thalagampola has replaced him. Fazil played for the Randles Hills outfit from junior level onwards, coming from a sporty Malay family from the Central Hills.

He represented the Kingswood Under-19 outfit in 2003 and 2004, leading the outfit to become triple champions in 2004. His cousins were all top class rugby players plus coaches in the country. Few of them are Nilfer Ibrahim, Amjad Buksh, Dev Anand, Anju Buksh and Ronny Ibrahim.

He first represented the Sri Lankan junior outfit in 2000 at the Junior Asiad. Later in 2003, he made his debut for the senior team when he got a surprise call for the national team against the visiting Hong Kong outfit at the Nittawela Rugby Stadium. A year later after leaving school, he joined Kandy Sports Club and never crossed over to any other clubs though he was offered better perks. He led Kandy SC to a triple championship in 2010 and 2015.

After 14 years of club rugby he took up coaching. During his playing days, he was an automatic choice for not only the sevens outfit but also the XV-a-side team as well. He was one of the rare players to represent the Barbarians outfit, which played against Japan in Hong Kong.

Kandy lost out on Thilina Wijesinghe to CH & FC and two of their props, Ashan Darling and Ganuka Dissanayake to the Sailors. Meanwhile they have managed to secure Shawket Lahir from the Park Club.