And the man presenting this award was none other than the greatest allrounder the game has ever known _ Sir Garfield Sobers who was the chief guest at the Southern California Cricket Association awards banquet held at the Los Angles Inter-Continental Hotel in December last year.
But unfortunately Mahagama could not be present on the occasion owing to pressure of work and Dr. Cyril Ernest another outstanding Sri Lankan cricketer accepted the award on behalf of Mahagama.
Mahagama has the natural ability to organise and see his efforts to fruition. He is a former Sri Lanka cager captain (he was then known as Cosmos Perera) and is the elder brother of Malsiri who also sported Sri Lanka colours in the cager game.
Mahagama's wife Rosie was also a former Sri Lanka netball player.
The grand ballroom was filled to capacity as the large expatriate Sri Lanka cricket community gathered to recognise the achievements and crown the champions of the four divisions of the Southern California league. The chief guest was Sir Garfield Sobers.
Krish Sharma, President of the SCCA speaking on the occasion said that champions Sri Lanka. He lauded the efforts of the LA based Sri Lankan community for putting California cricket on the map.
Recalling the Sri Lankan team's tour of LA, he appreciated the warmth and friendliness of the Sri Lankan cricketers who never refused requests for autographs and who readily agreed for photographs.
Sir Garfield in his address praised Sri Lanka's achievement and recalled how he (Sobers) was instrumental in introducing Arjuna Ranatunga the Sri Lanka skipper into the Test arena. Sobers was a then on contract with the Sri Lanka Cricket Board.
Dr. Cyril Ernest who was also a former Benedictine allrounder and who was the chairman of selectors of the USA team and now manager of the team received an award for the services he has rendered to Southern Californian cricket.
The Sri Lankan clubs in LA _ Century Cricket Club and Colts Cricket Club play division I and III cricket. Century Club is led by former Wesleyite Sherard Mustafa and they finished fourth in the league. For of its members received special awards for scoring centuries. They were Basit Ali (Pakistan), Romesh Weerakoon (Old royalist), Lalindra Wickremaratne (Old Thomian). Lalindra is the holder of probably one of the fastest hundreds made in North America.
Ranesh Peiris an Old Thomian leads the Colts Cricket Club. They completed a rare double winning the league and the play off trophies. Out of 18 games they won 16 and lost only two. They had an unbeaten run of 14 wins.
The Colts team at one time comprised eight doctors. They dedicated their promotion to the top league to one of their founders _ the late Dr. Indran Selvaratnam. The Colts are made up of a mixture of Sri Lankans, Pakistanis and Indians. In addition to skipper Peiris other Sri Lankans in the team are Dr. Cyril Er- nest, Mervyn Fernando and Noel Vanlangenberg (Old Peterites), Aravindan Wijayachandra (Old Royalist), Priyan Pathirane (Old DSSC) and Dean Jayasinghe.
The Colts carried away the trophies for the league and play off, best bowler, best fielder and special awards for a century to Dean Jayasinghe (British born son of Old Peterite Roy Jayasinghe) and a hat- trick by Saminathan Krishnan (India).
The Colts CC table was full of trophies including the award of Cosmos Mahagama who was a former Colts CC captain.