Appreciaions

11th Death Anniversary of DIG Daya Jayasundera: Police Officer of Rugby fame

Late Daya Jayasundera joined the Police Force as a Sub Inspector of Police in 1968 and ended up as a Deputy Inspector General of Police. He was the third child of a family of nine children. He did great service as a Police Officer and after joining the Police Force, he excelled in Rugby and became a player cum coach, which enabled him to bring the Police Rugby team to the top standard.

Daya had a charming personality that won the hearts of everyone whom he came across and he was honest, to say the least, and was proud of the police uniform he was dressed in. Daya had his education at Dharmaraja College, Kandy where he played Cricket, Hockey, Boxing and athletics and he was a boxer of repute who represented the Indu/Ceylon Annual Boxing Meet held in Sri Lanka in the early ’60s.

After leaving school, he played Rugby for the Kandy Sports Club and after a Police/Kandy Rugby game in Nittawela, the former Inspector General of Police, Rudra Rajasingham, spotted his rugby skills and invited him to join the Police Force and after an interview, Daya was appointed as a Sub Inspector of Police in 1968 and played in the Police Rugby team. At that time, the team was captained by S. Shivendran.

He played under M.A. Majeed in 1970 and shared the Clifford Cup with Havelocks that year. In 1972, when Anton Benedict led the Police Rugby team, Daya was a player and that year, Police won the Clifford Cup and again he was a member of the 1973 Police team captained by Nizam Hajireen in which the team shared the Cup with the Sri Lanka Army. In 1974, Daya captained the Rugby team and in 1972, Daya was a member of the Sri Lanka Rugby for the ASIAD held in Hong Kong.

One of his teammates was former Senior DIG Nimal Lewke. Daya took up refereeing after his playing days and proved that he was a top level ‘A’ Division referee and he coached the Police Rugby team and became an International Rugby Referee. When Daya was coaching the Police Rugby team in the ’80s, the Police team was undisputed champions before the Kandy SC took over the mantle and in that period, the Police Rugby team undertook a tour of Hong Kong in 1988 with Shivendran as the Manager of the team. During this time, Ernest Perera was the IGP and Daya was the Chairman of the Police Rugby during Daya’s tenure as the DIG.

This remembrance is dedicated to Daya from his dear wife, Badra and three children, Danushka, Pandula and Rajith and his brothers, Ananda, Upananda, Sarath, Gamini, Senarath and dear sisters Jayanthi and Swarna with the loving remembrance of our beloved late Father, Jayasundera M. Wijeratne, late mother Gladys Jayasundera, and the late brother, Parakrama Jayasundera.