An unblemished Bradby Shield record
Irshad Raheeman was a rugged prop forward for Trinity College and then was turned out to be a fine No.8 for Royal College. He turned out for both Royal and Trinity in rugby, and created an unblemished Bradby Shield record. The rugged prop forward Irshad, started playing for the First XV for Trinity College when R.N. Balasuriya captained the side. Royal College was led by S.S. Hashim and Trinity won the Bradby Shield.
Irshad also toured Bangkok with the champion Trinity College side, which also won the School’s Championship. That year Trinity had a crack side, with former Sri Lanka fast bowler and all-rounder Ravi Ratnayake, Janaka Kiridena and Balasuriya standing out as forwards and of the three quarters now Prof. Kamal Deen and flier Mohan Bibile. With the Tisera brothers Jan and Andre, the halves combination clicked effectively and put the finishing touches to many moves, which ended up by many scoring opportunities.
Irshad was an up and coming forward and excelled as prop in that champion side. In 1978 he joined Royal College and soon turned out to be a very useful No.8. That year Royal won the Bradby Shield under K.R.T. Pieris. He was a useful player in the Royal side and played with purpose. In the third year he played under R.P. Gunasekera and Trinity was led by J.V. Tisera.
Trinity beat Royal in the first leg at Bogambara, but Royal came back and won the second leg. Irshad played his heart out and he was a member of that team too. That was his third year in the Royal team.
In his last year Irshad held the Royal forwards together and was an indefatigable No.8 for Royal forwards, who looked like a ship without a rudder without him in his final year. He was ably supported by some fine forwards like Leon Fonseka, Kapila Pieris, Shanaka Gooneratne, S. Sridharan, and their halves combination of S. Sukumar and Gobi Kandiah hit it off smoothly. Royal won the Bradby Shield in his final year too, and Trinity was led by T. Ellepola.
Irshad Raheeman blossomed out to be a fine No.8 for Royal, and his appearances for Trinity and Royal and been in a winning Bradby Shield team for four consecutive years, stand’s unique and seems to be a rare feat to be emulated by any player. His coach at Trinity was Maurice Perera and late Summa Navaratnam gave the finishing touches to make him a complete player at Royal as an outstanding No.8. Dedicated and outstanding players in the caliber of Irshad is very rare. He left to the USA where his rugby career was cut short and ended on a sound note.