by Ravi Nagahawatte
Two friends rarely get the opportunity to reminisce the past in front of an audience. When they do they can really entertain a crowd. Dr Maiya Gunasekara, a reputed surgeon and rugby personality, and Mohan Balasuriya, a former Sri Lanka rugby player, took turns in recalling past memories of their rugby careers at the Annual General Meeting of the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) which took place at the Trans Asia Hotel last Saturday.

Gunasekara, acting as Pro-tem Chairman, recalled how once Balasuriya had got into a raging mood and dragged the full back of an opposite team up to the referee for stamping him. As Gunasekara explained, to an elert audience, Balasuriya had later demanded that the referee punish this player.

There wasn’t much change in Balasuriya’s face after this story but what made the audience burst into laughter was the revelation of an incident which took place when Sri Lanka once played Asian giants Japan.

"Bala and I were once in the Sri Lanka team which played Japan. There was a huge player in the Japan team whom we nicknamed ‘Suicide’. Sudenly we saw Bala on the ground after being brought down by Suicide. I told Bala to get up but he insisted that we didn’t force him to get up. He ordered everyone not to touch him and said that he wanted time to recover as he had been hit by Suicide," recalled Gunasekara.

Gunasekara then left the podium by inviting Balasuriya to take the chair as the new president of the SLRFU.

Bala then commenced speaking in his usual athoratative tone and thanked Gunasekara for reminiscing past memories of incidents in which he was also involved.

"Thanks Maithree (Maiya’s real name is Maithree) for those nice words about me. I was amazed by those stories as some of it was quite imaginative. Well as Maithree has told a story about me I would like to relate a story about him. Maithree introduced me to golf after both of us quit rugby. Most often Maithree left home telling his wife that he was going to play golf with me. After sometime Maithree’s wife came to know that her husband was not playing golf with me. Maithree’s wife had one day questioned Maithree as to why he had stopped playing golf with me. Maithree in return had questioned his wife wether she would continue to play golf with a person who cheats all the time. Maithree’s wife had said no. Maithree had told his wife, ‘so does Bala’," recalled Balasuriya.

Dr Maiya Gunasekara and Bala have nutured a longstanding friendship. They are said to have chats at the CR&FC on the development of the sport. As Bala further explained sometimes these chats turned into arguments and there had been occasions where curious on-lookers had inquired from the two whether everything was alright.

Balasuriya revealed some positive plans he has to uplift the standard of rugby in Sri Lanka. One is to televise local rugby matches. There was talk about trying to do everything possible to increase the player base in Sri Lanka. As for the amazing stories relating to rugby you can bet that there won’t be a shortage of them with Maiya and Bala around!.