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ShareColombo: He was used to watching matches from the best possible position, but is left fighting for people like himself, who struggle to get into a cricket stadium. Ajith CS Perera was ousted from the cricketing system due to a cruel blow of fate but decided to make a difference from the periphery. The twist in his story goes back to 1992, when he was set to make his international debut as an umpire.
Commuting back from the Sri Lankan cricket board office, in proud possession of a letter of appointment for the 1992 Colombo Test against New Zealand, he was involved in a freak accident that saw a tree fall on his car, killing the driver and paralyzing him waist downwards.
"It was raining, but it was not a thunderstorm as such. We were passing through a police check post and the driver could just not have navigated away," remembers Perera.
"There were just 10 days to go for the match, but I was destined not to be an international umpire," recalls Perera, a former first-class cricketer who had been called up for duty by the cricket board since the International Cricket Council's (ICC) present process of appointing umpires had not been formulated then.
Perera, who was the first Sri Lankan to make it to the English system as an umpire, also went on to become a scorer, training instructor and an examiner for umpires and scorers. Not surprisingly, he was listed by Wisden in 1999 among eight people who have made a difference to the game with contributions on various fronts.
Perera, who has been fighting for the rights of disabled people at public places over the years and recently got support by a decision from the Supreme Court, is also an author whose books include one on technical aspects of the game.
"I argued my own case in the Supreme Court and derived great satisfaction in having convinced it about our problems. It is a matter of fundamental rights for us and my job now is to help people implement the directions in the best possible way," says the articulate 55-year-old.
Nowadays, Perera can be seen pursuing Sri Lankan cricket officials to make renovations in order to make watching cricket matches a possibility for the disabled. "The World Cup will be held on the sub-continent two years from now and I am hoping my hard work gets results for people like us," he adds.
