Ajith Chrysantha Stephen Perera, JP, CChem., FRSC (29 February 1956 – 29 October 2020) Ajith the Indomitable. Daily News (Sri Lanka), Retrieved on 2 November 2020. was a Chartered Chemist by profession, a scholar, a former senior manager in industry, a qualified training instructor, also a former test-match-panel cricket umpire.
The international admiration Perera has won and the national recognition he has gained have come through his achievements, acquired both in Sri Lanka and in England in different fields: cricket, analytical chemistry and quality assurance, in all of which he was academically and professionally well qualified and widely experienced.
Almost on the eve of umpiring his first cricket test match in Colombo, Sri Lanka vs New Zealand, a large wayside tree crashed on and straddled his moving car, killing his chauffeur and leaving him instantaneously a paraplegic for life.
He was a writer, speaker, author and a disability rights activist - as a fervent advocate for inclusion of all people by design - most importantly as a widely experienced and highly competent accessibility adviser and assessor, recognised by three learned societies and several reputed bodies overseas.
He was the founder and, as of 10 June 2020, held the honorary position of Chief Executive / Secretary-General of Idiriya, a registered, not-for-profit humanitarian service organisation in Sri Lanka.
Early life
Born to Instructor Commodore M. G. S. Perera (1 June 1917 – 10 August 1999), Founder and the First Commandant Naval & Maritime Academy Trincomalee, the First and Foremost Director of Naval Training, Royal Ceylon Navy, and former Senior Staff Captain / Nautical Instructor (Training of Deck Officer Cadets) Ceylon Shipping Corporation (1977–1983) and Maureen Johanna Perera (19 February 1924 - 22 October 2019), he has one sister, Deepthi C. J. Guneratne BSc (Botany), MSc (Soil Chemistry).
Education Perera completed his primary and secondary education at the Royal Primary School and the Royal College, Colombo and thereafter gained BSc (Honours) from the University of Sri Lanka, Colombo in May 1975, followed by a joint MSc from the University of Colombo and the University of Birmingham, England in July 1977. He thereby qualified professionally in the field of Analytical Chemistry, specialising in the subject of Quality Assurance, in which field his outstanding contributions were internationally recognised and awarded with an honorary PhD.
Professional life: 1978–1992 Perera is a Chartered Chemist (CChem.)by profession and a Registered Analytical Chemist of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in the United Kingdom. He is a Fellow (FRSC) of the RSC of which he is an honorary life member and the former hony. secretary / treasurer (1984–1992) of its section in Sri Lanka.
He is also a life member and a Fellow (FIChemC) of the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon and a Fellow (FIQA) of the Institute of Quality Assurance UK.
His professional career started in August 1978 as an assistant lecturer at the department of Chemistry, University of Colombo. His work thereafter in the multinational pharmaceutical manufacturing industry extended for almost 14 years, from September 1978 until July 1992.
Perera started his career in industry as a production executive with Glaxo Ceylon Limited and stayed until March 1982.
Mackwoods-Winthrop Limited then hired hm as the senior manager in charge of their quality assurance and analytical control divisions until March 1989, and thereafter as the senior manager of the newly established technical services department.
Perera then changed over to the cosmetics and healthcare industry when Hemas Manufacturing Limited invited him to join them in August 1992 as the Director – Senior Manager of quality assurance and product development.
But it was only 14 weeks service there for Perera, as a freak road accident on 12 November 1992 made him instantaneously a paraplegic for life and cut short tragically, at the age of 36, his professional career that was just blossoming out.
Cricket Career: 1972 – Considered as a unique feat, his Professional Achievements in the Cricketing Sphere have extended to almost all possible vital avenues of the game reaching often the professional levels – as a Player, Umpire, Scorer, Training Instructor and Examiner on its laws, Administrator, Writer, Author and, even an Activist promoting 'Accessible Facilities for All' at Cricket Stadia, etc.
went on to serve three driving organizations in the Drug field viz Glaxo, Mack Woods Winthrop, and Hemas, while chasing after at the same time his recreation time energy, to turn into a Cricket Test Umpire, the main SriLankan to qualify as such with the Worldwide Cricket Board in 1992. Tragically while serving at Hemas that year as head of Value Confirmation and Item The board, he was remorselessly struck somewhere near a misfortune that cut off his spine surrendered to limit him to a wheel seat until the end of his life Where many would have surrender to a destiny with the breaking of their fantasies.
Ajith would not surrender and from that wheel seat upheld by his caring mother, close family and dear companions faced life's conflict boldly, composing books on Cricket and all the more critically advocating the reason for the contrastingly abled as himself. He established IDIRIYA a non-profit philanthropic association to look for regulations to disclose it required for all structures to have access to the distinctively abled and surprisingly tied down a High Court judgment to help his objective. His death left a serious void and to guarantee that his memory is propagated in a significant manner a Wellbeing Treatment unit in his name will be pronounced opened by his sister Deepthi Guneratne in Sri Ramakrishna Beragala Haldumulla Sri Lanka on his 72nd birth commemoration, on 24th February 2024. The unit will be named the Ajith CS Perera Wellbeing Treatment Unit and is neighbouring a consideration home for truly and intellectually impeded dejected elderly folks shown to Fabulous Grins Establishment and will support the occupants as well as preparation in Seniors Care. The drawn-out vision to make it middle for Telemedicine administrations in the unit was made conceivable by a consortium containing Mr. R Gnanasekaran Chairman of Two Leaves Trust, Ret. Colonel Manik Jayakumar -S L V F Founder Q Trade, Godwin Devendranath Marino Project Coordinator of Two Leaves Trust, of Fantastic Grins Establishment, S. Skandakumar Our Paanai Trust, /Somasakthy Trust Chairman of both trust, Deepthi and Ranil Guneratne addressing the Legal administrators of Idiriya, Sean Nathan and Dr and Mrs Dil Seneviratne.
Perera started playing serious cricket, as a utility player who combined his undergraduate and postgraduate education with cricket. He represented regularly the University of Colombo for seven consecutive years between 1972 and 1978, and played at Inter-club Division – One two-day tournament cricket conducted by the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) for the P. Saravanamuttu Trophy, which was then considered as the main first-class domestic cricket competition in the country.
In 1975, whilst still an undergraduate, Perera qualified to become a Cricket Umpire. He is the First and Only test-match-panel Cricket Umpire the Royal College Colombo and the University of Colombo have ever produced.
Sri Lanka gained test status in 1981 as a full member of the international cricket council. Yet, it was still the era when cricket scoring was hardly given any kind of importance.
In the Preface to The Golden Era of Sri Lankan Cricket Leslie Cheeseman B.E.M. described Perera's endeavours as:
"Even in those early days, the perceived extent of his unbridled enthusiasm, the level of his intended personal commitment, analytical mind, high degree of technical knowledge of the game and its governing laws, plus his unquenchable thirst for newer knowledge and practical experience at higher level of the game together with his willingness to further improve individual performance, made Perera to decide to go to England, several times at his own expense, to achieve this goal".
As a result, Perera became the FIRST Sri Lankan to be accepted and recognised by the international body the Association of Cricket Umpires and Scorers England as a "Professionally Qualified" Cricket Umpire (24 October 1985), Scorer (7 April 1987), then also as a 'Scorer competent in advanced scoring techniques' (25 March 1990), a Grade – A Senior Training Instructor in the art and craft of both Cricket Scoring and Cricket Umpiring (August 1990) and finally, also as an effective Examiner (1 November 1998) on the Laws of Cricket, all offices of this reputed Association.
For 15 weeks of the British summer in 1990, Perera, afforded the opportunity, umpired cricket matches in England in Lancashire County four-day Second Eleven and in top Leagues in the area, viz. Bolton & District Cricket Association, Bolton League and Central Lancashire.
After 17 years of hard work, sacrifice, loads of patience and, refusal to bow down to pressure and change his ways to please anyone at the centre, Perera, at the age of 36, made his way to the Six-member Sri Lanka Test-Match-Panel of Cricket Umpires on 10 November 1992.
In 10 days' time Perera was due – formerly appointed by the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka – to stand in his first test match in Colombo Sri Lanka vs New Zealand. It was so..... very close, yet so... far for Perera.
Significant Contributions In 1996, he was highly commended by the then Sri Lanka Cricket Board in becoming of great assistance to them, as single-handedly, Perera accepted and satisfactorily completed its highly technical assignment to streamline the rules and regulations governing 2, 3 and 4-day Division – 1, Division – 2 and under 24 Major Tournament Cricket in Sri Lanka.
Seated on a Wheelchair, battling paraplegia and balancing a laptop, he even Authored Two A – 4 size Internationally famed books on Cricket, The Golden Era of Sri Lankan Cricket (May 1999) and Thinking Cricket (September 2001) . They were also Published by him without any external financial support.
In December 1999, at the request of the Sri Lanka Cricket Board, Perera designed and conducted over four half-days the FIRST Formal Training and Evaluation Programme for the top Sri Lanka Cricket Scorers, in preparation for the under-19 Cricket World Cup Tournament that was held in Sri Lanka in January 2000.
Perera has also turned a pioneer dis-Ability Activist campaigning in Sri Lanka for Accessible built Sports Environments for Al and user-friendly Facilities.
Honours and Recognitions On 8 May 1999 the Association of Cricket Umpires Sri Lanka, in recognition of his twenty four long years of dedicated services, unstinting loyal support and unlimited contributions towards the betterment of the umpiring fraternity in Sri Lanka, at times at great personal sacrifice, unanimously elected Perera a 'Life Member'.
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (millennium edition) has seen fit to regard Perera as one of only eight Cricketing People of the World to be specifically recognised for his many outstanding achievements and worthwhile significant contributions to the game.
He also became a recipient (1999) of the Star of Asia award for Excellence in Sports.
On 30 January 2003, Perera and 15 other Retired Test Match and One-day International Panel Senior Cricket Umpires of Sri Lanka were recognised for the dedicated long years of Thankless Services rendered to the game and felicitated.
On 30 September 2005, Perera, for his Internationally Recognised Significant Contributions to Cricket Literature, became the First Author in the annals of his Country's (Sri Lanka) Sports Literature to be recognised and honoured formally at a literary awards festival.