The game of rugby which is played globally is a tough body contact game. Some of the players who played in the past took to the game because their friends and relatives handled the oval shaped ball. Mohamed Ansar Buksh was one of them who hailed from a family of ruggerites, who played the game for the love and passion reaching great heights.
Ansar had two nicknames as his family called him ‘Anchu’ and the rest called him ‘Anju’ especially in his normal life and in sporting circles. He was born in 1977, Allowdeen Buksh was his father who passed away in 2007 and mother is Doreen Buksh and has three siblings. His father was an old boy of Zahira College, Gampola and played hockey there. He joined the Sri Lanka Navy as a Chief Engineer later retired and joined the Royal Navy in Oman. His younger brother Amjad was a Kingswoodian who donned the College, Club and National jersey in rugby. His has two sisters Rikaza Alith a pre school teacher who owns a day care centre while the younger sister is Rizana Liyanage.
Due to his father’s attachment with the Navy as the Chief Executive in Trincomalee, Ansar started his school career at Tissa Maha Vidyalaya. After his dad moved to his home town Kandy in 1983, he was enrolled at Kingswood College, Kandy. He used to mingle with his cousins as they used their backyard to do sports which turned out to be their practice ground.
There he was accompanied by few of his famous relatives in sports arena like Ibrahims (Nilufer, Rizvi, late Rinny, Ronny, Roy and late Raja), the Amith’s (Azeem, Roy and Tyronne), the late Tuan Amidon (famous football and rugby player of Army), the Marija’s (Faizal and Fazil), Shirley Sheriffdeen and Dev Anand . Few of them were cousins and others were uncles.
His involvement in rugby was mainly due to his first coach Ananda Kasthuriarachchi, who observed his playing and invited him to play in a match against St.Anthony’s College, Katugastota, when he was only 11 years old. . He was awarded school colours for his participation in rugby at a college prize giving. He was then appointed as captain of the under-13 team along with another cousin Nilufer Ibrahim, where both of them continued playing rugby in all age groups until they completed schooling in 1997. He also took part in college football and received college colours. One of his unforgettable memories in his school rugby career was when they won the All island 10-a-side tournament in 1996 defeating Trinity College, Kandy. They were under the guidance of former Army and Sri Lanka winger G.B. Gunadasa who coached both second and first XV sides.
After completing his tenure in school, he managed to play for Old Trinitians Sports Club in 1997. Then he joined Kandy SC and made his dream debut in 1998 for them. His enrollment with Kandy was at the request of his coach Ananda Kasthuriarachchi and played for Kandy ‘B’ team initially. His coach Kasthuriarachchi was instrumental in moulding him as a top class rugby player. It was Priyantha Ekanayake and Ananda Kasthuriarachchi who promoted him to don the Kandy ‘A’ team jersey and made his debut against Police under the captaincy of Asoka Jayasena.
In 1999, he got the National call and played for them for five years. He played under the captaincies of Asoka Jayasena, Haris Omar and Pradeep Basnayake occupying the position of hooker in the front row. He toured Malaysia with the national side coached by retired senior DIG Nimal Lewke. He was a member of the team which took part in the Asian Games in Malaysia and Thailand and played the Rugby Asiad against Japan and Korea and World Cup qualifying games against Kazakhstan.
During his tenure as a player he was coached by many personalities like Nimal Lewke, Tony Amit, Tavita Tulagaesi (Laga), C. P. Abeygunawardana, his school coaches were Ananda Kasthuriarachchi and G. B. Gunadasa not forgetting the late George Simpkin. He was honoured and privileged to play under his club captains likes Haris Omar, Nalaka Weerakkody, Indrajith Bandaranayake, Pradeep Basnayake, Sajith Mallikarachchi, Radhika Hettiarachchi and Sanjeewa Jayasinghe
At one stage all his cousins Amjad, Nilufer, Dev Anand and Fazil Marija scrummed down for
Kandy SC which was a proud moment in his life. His career with Kandy was from 1998 to 2007 and missed out only once in the starting line up He was a permanent player on all other occasions, winning several championships for them. His final game for Kandy was in 2007 against CR and FC where he was nominated Man of the match in the Clifford Cup final before he migrated to New Zealand in 2008.
He also played another year for Kandy under the captaincy of Jeeva Galgamuwa before he migrated. After migrating to New Zealand, he settled down in Wellington with his wife Sithi Ruvina Sheriffdeen and two sons Arshaq (13) and Maaz Arshiq (7). He would like to extend his gratitude to Ananda Kasthuriarachchi, his coach who taught him the basics of rugby. G.B. Gunadasa who was his coach at school in the final year and Malik Samarawickrema for the support extended by looking after him while playing for Kandy.
