C.E. Perera

                            Ceylon's greatest of that era
 

" His foot work was equisite  in  the mould of Hobbs or a  Trumper "	The pride of Wesley College and the prince of schoolboy batsmen. That was C.E. Perera whose cricket career was all too short. It spanned just 10 years from 1897 to 1907. The labels tagged on to Perera were tagged onto such schoolboy stars Pat McCarthy(Royal) and M. Sathasivam(Wesley) almost forty years later and still later to Michael Tissera (St. Thomas) and Roy Dias (St. Peters).
" He had every stroke in the   cricketer's locker and he   used them all to entertain   the spectators "                   S.P. Foenander     Links :   Royal - Wesley 1898   Royal - Wesley 1899     _______________________    Records from the C.G.A.shows    that C.E. Perera's brother in law    was selected for the Ceylon    contingent to London for the    coronation of King Edward VII    in 1902. As he was given    preference over another senior    officer he declined to go.    _______________________	Known as Amaradasa while at Buddhist College (later Ananda College), he received coaching from J.C. McHeyzer the Thomian and Colts player, then head master at Buddhist College. He was the most stylish batsman of that period. Critics went into raptures describing Perera. "A cricketer in a thousand" , "A born cricketer."                                                                                          Tall & lean in build Perera was all grace in his batsmanship. His foot work was exquisite in  the mould of Hobbs or a  Trumper. He was compared to the great English test player of that period R.C.N. Palareit. Almost ninety years before modern coaching techniques were thought of ,  C.E. Perera was to display the art of batsmanship.                                                                                          He first hit the headlines with a classic 97 not out against Royal College in 1898 enabling Wesley to beat Royal ( by an innings ) for the first time since the inaugural match in 1893. With W.V. Wijekoon, the pair put on 105 runs for the 10th wicket. The first century partnership for the 10th wicket in Ceylon. This innings gained selection for the Colts CC (then representing Ceylon) against Captain Ward Jackson's European XI in 1898. C.E. Perera was the first Sinhalese to play for the Colts CC.  Wesley cricket developed fast after Price Park was opened. Along with Perera there was another schoolboy in the Colts team in J.A. Scharenguivel (St. Thomas). These two were the first schoolboys to represent the Ceylonese - European series which ended in 1933. In that game Perera scored a brilliant 71 not out out of a total of 198. With N.A. Petternott (40), they put on a record 83 runs for the 10th wicket. After this inning one scribe wrote - " What a batsman, we shall never see the like of him again."                                            As captain for Wesley in 1899 Perera scored 85 against Royal College and brought their second win over Royal. Selected to lead the Combined Collages against the invincible Colts, he batted brilliantly to score 64 and 32, and the schoolboys lost to Colts by just one run on the first innings. The scores - Combined Colleges XI  195 & 120 to Colts 196 & 83 for 3 wickets. The College XI had 10 Sinhalese members. Elated by their astounding performance (there was no team at the time to match the invincible Colts) they persuaded other leading Sinhalese personalities to form a Sinhalese Sports Club. Ten days after their great effort the SSC was formed on the 28th of March 1899. Era of the cricket clubs formed on ethnic lines. The inaugural meeting to form the SSC was held at the Wesley College hall at Dam Street Pettah.                                              A historic match was played on the 5th and 6th of July 1901 between Colts CC and "The Boer Prisoners of War." ( The Boer are the first white South African team to have played coloured teams.) Perera going in at number seven for Colts scored a brilliant 90 not out, out of 146.  In 1901 he was associated with a partnership of 204 for the 4th wicket and 193 for the first wickets. On both occasions he scored centuries.                                              From 1904 to 1907 he spent time playing for SSC and Colts. He was selected to tour Bombay with the first Ceylonese team to travel overseas. In India C.E. Perera(80) and Ahmath(79) added 117 runs for the 4th wicket in just 25 minutes. His 80 included 15 fours. During the last two years he had a rare distinction of scoring four centuries in first class cricket, a feat uncommon in Ceylon at the time.                                               Wesley's genius cricketer passed away on the 27th of March 1907 due to enteric fever. He played his last cricket match on the 2nd of March 1907. He was elected to captain  of SSC at the annual general meeting a month prior to his death and never got the opportunity to lead the team. According to newspaper reports, Ceylon's greatest cricketer was given a military funeral, coffin was draped with the Union Jack and the funeral took place at Mt. Lavinia cemetery. On the 1st of March 1940, portrait of C.E. Perera was unveiled at Campbell Park pavilion by P. Sarawanamuttu, President of the Ceylon Cricket Association.