Rugby legend Tony Amit felicitated

Wednesday, 27 August 2025 00:02 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reputed rugby coach and referee Tony Amit was felicitated by at a special function held at Gihan’s Beach Resort in Dehiwala amidst his family, friends and contemporaries from school and club sports teams. Amit, a former national rugby player and coach, was a respected referee not only in Sri Lanka, also in the Asian region.

Tony Amit was renowned as a decorated and all-round athlete produced by Zahira College, Colombo, who brought honour and pride to his school during the 1960s, notably from 1964 to 1968. He went on to captain CH&FC, one of the premier rugby sides in the country, in 1977, while representing Sri Lanka in rugby as well as cricket.

He was actively involved as a rugby referee from 1981 to 1992, and officiated top tier international tournaments, including the Rugby Asiad held in Japan in 1984 and in Sri Lanka in 1990, as well as at the world-renowned Hong Kong Sevens in 1991. As a coach, Amit led CH&FC to multiple titles from 1987 to 1994 before serving as Sri Lanka’s national rugby coach from 1994 to 1996. During his tenure as coach, Sri Lanka competed at World Cup Qualifiers in Malaysia and Italy.

Amit has played a major role in training and development of rugby referees in Sri Lanka, and still continues to contribute his expertise to the growth of local referees. The felicitation ceremony was conducted by an organising committee jointly headed by Ashroff Ghany and Nazeem Ghaffoor, who presented a token of appreciation for his continued services to his school – Zahira College. The members of the Zahira 1986/87 team also took the opportunity to honour Amit with a memento. Board of Governors of Zahira College Chairman Fouzul Hameed graced the occasion as chief guest while Zahira College Principal Trizviiy Marikkar joined in as the guest of honour at the event.