Acclaimed journalist and cricket commentator Palitha Perera was honoured for his four decades of yeoman service to Sri Lanka’s sports journalism at a ceremony titles ‘Palitha Harasara’ held at the famous Ananda Samarakoon Studio of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) last Wed. (Sep. 30).

It is widely believed that Perera is Sri Lanka’s first radio cricket commentator. However, his name will be ever remembered by the local cricket lovers for his role in popularising cricket among the local masses through his charming cricket commentaries aired over the radio in the Singhalese language since the 1960s. The efforts of Perera, and his colleague in the media box, to coin Singhalese translations for the original English cricket terms (I.e.: maiden over, debut, century, fifty, bat, pad and ball guard, etc.) could well be an enterprising subject for the linguists.

Along with others like Premasara Epasinghe, Perera made cricket the game of the outstation folk with the use of their genteel voice and informative descriptions graphically portraying this once Suddha’s game in a way close to the hearts and minds of the masses, notably at a time when there was no live TV cricket coverage or at least the TV.

And, when the live TV coverage began here for the first time in 1982 on Rupavahini, with the tour of Keith Fletcher’s England for the islanders’ inaugural Test, Perera was among the first set of local TV commentators as well.

The efforts of Perera and Epasinghe and their contemporaries could be regarded an invaluable service mainly because those radio commentaries during that period reached a wide range of listeners in far off areas across the country helping the game to break away from its elitist shackles. Such change in cricket’s social participation later made the game the ‘unofficial’ National sport of the country.

It is a pertinent point here that the World Cup winning team representing Sri Lanka in 1996, under Arjuna Ranatunga, didn’t comprise anyone from either Royal or S. Thomas’, two high-class Colombo schools that had pumped a large numbers of players into the National side right throughout the country’s post-independent era cricket.

Perera has been first involved in a live radio cricket commentary in 1963 covering the famous Ananda Vs Nalanda Big Match in Colombo. He later became a programme producer, announcer and director at the SLBC. Completing over 45 years of cricket commentating, Parera last month aired his voice covering the Compaq Cup tri-series final held at Khettarama.

He has earlier been felicitated in 2000 by the Students’ Media Association of the Colombo University and the honour was conferred on him by the then Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. S. Scharenguivel, taking into consideration his noteworthy contribution ‘for four decades as a media-man, newscaster and feature programme producer’.