Former Police sports star Nimal Abeysinghe dies

Senior Superintendent of Police (rtd) Nimal Abeysinghe who died on Monday was an outstanding sportsman who represented the Police in Soccer, Basketball and Rugby.

Nimal an old boy of St. Anne’s College Kurunegala represented his School in Basketball and Soccer and played for the Sri Lanka youth Soccer team.

After joining the Police he took to rugby and played for the Police from 1969-1972 and played a key role in the success of the police occupying the pivotal fly half position and pairing off with Sunil Perera. He was an excellent place kicker who piloted the policemen to victory on many occasions.

Playing in the 1972 Clifford Cup final against league champions CH and FC he gave the policemen territorial advantage with his booming kicks to touch and “nailed” his opposite number Lorensz Pereira time and again with some bone crunching tackles to cripple their moves which resulted in the game being decided on penalties.

League champions CH and FC were well on their way to clinch the rugby double and were leading 9-6 through three penalties fired across by flanker Lanil Tennakoon when police were awarded a 55 yard penalty by referee Malcolm Wright midway in the second half and Abeysinghe sent the ball sailing over the cross bar to make it 9 all. Them came the match winning penalty when Nizam Hajireen put it over from 30 yards out three minutes before the final whistle to give police the Clifford Cup outright for the first time in their history with a 12-9 win under the able leadership of Anton Benedict.

Among his team mates’ in the police team were Ibrahim ‘Tanker’ Hamid, T.V. Morseth, E. K. R. Wijewardena, J. B. Kularatne, Juraghan Savanghan, ‘Rock’ Banda, Daya Jayasundera, R. P. Linton, Anton Benedict, Nimal Lewke, Sunil Perera, S. L. Samaraweera, Seevali Samarasekera, Bandula Wijesinghe, Abdul Majeed, Nizam Hajireen.

After hanging up his boots Abeysinghe served as the Director Police Sports. His funeral will take place today at the General Cemetery, Borella at 4 pm with the cortege leaving Jayaratne Funeral Parlour, Borella.