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| Sunday, 09 March 2003 |
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Palitha - 40 not out with the mike by SRIAN OBEYESEKERE If it is our cricketers who have illuminated the game today by their super feats, it is a different breed of men who have contributed their mite to taking cricket to the length and breadth of the country. Today, the game has reached almost every household. Almost every man and woman on the street. And it is men in the Sinhala electronic media such as Palitha Perera who have broken new ground through the television and radio. So much so as to warming the cockles of a cricket crazy nation. Our cricket heroes coming to be idolised as `ape kollo' in the village. And for Palitha, who marks his 40th year in broadcasting this March, it must be a happy coincidence that it is at a time when Sri Lanka has entered the Super Sixes of the cricket World Cup in South Africa. For it is Palitha, who as a 19-year old, with the then Radio Ceylon in March 1963, who brought about a change in broadcasting the game to almost everybody, in giving new meaning and definition to a colonial game, transcending it from its English dressing and once elite confines in a `Sinhalised' version. Terminology such as 'Nipanduwa' for no-ball, 'Kadulla Muwakirima' for LBW, 'Duwaddi Dewigiya' for run out, 'Uda Panduwa' for catch that has made Sinhala cricket commentaries so descriptive by and large. Indeed, Palitha is the John Arlot of Sinhala cricket broadcasting whose early days at Radio Ceylon as it was then known, was to later redefine the use of words in relaying the game to listeners. As he reminisced when the Sunday Observer caught up with him last week, Palitha, who joined as a Sinhala announcer, found his first chore behind the mike at the 34th Ananda-Nalanda 'Big Match'. Then I was the only active commentator. There were no twosomes behind the mike", recalled Palitha, now in his 59th year, as he went on, "In 1972 I was asked to do the first Sinhala commentary of the Royal-Thomian by the then Director of the Commercial Service, the late Livy Wijemanne". Subsequently, Livy told me,`Palitha you better find another man to do the commentaries alongside you'. "It was then that I introduced Premasara Epasinghe to the fold, and we formed the duo like Bertie Wijesinha and Lucien de Zoysa. As time went by the technical terms were found in taking Sinhala radio commentaries to the village", recalled Palitha who said that later "my guru Karunaratne Abeysekera and professor Vinnie Vitharana also introduced a few words that are now used. If cricket has brought out many dream `firsts' as far as cricketers feats are concerned, so has it been for Palitha's tribe in the further advancement of the game in a different way. Like Arjuna Ranatunga's debut for Sri Lanka against England after Sri Lanka gained Test status, Palitha had the distinction of becoming the first commentator to do the honours for Rupavahini in that historical year. Palitha, who went on to become the Sports Editor at what was later to be known as the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation in 1989, and Director, Sinhala Services from 1991 to '97, continues to serve the game he loves doing the rounds for Rupavahini in such important assignments as an announcer, the most recent being compering the talk shows of the World Cup matches, and turning out behind the mike at `Big Matches'. The first day of last week's Ananda-Nalanda as well was done by Palitha Perera. Looking back, this doyen of Sinhala broadcasting, who has also written on cricket for several sports magazines, says that he is glad his voice and sweat for four decades has helped better the game. His services came in for recognition by the Cricket Board which presented him with a golden coloured lion plaque in appreciation of his longstanding services. But Palitha says that there is much more to be done if our cricket is to go the extra mile. A long felt need has been for the establishment of a cricket academy which Palitha recalls the late Minister, Gamini Dissanayake emphasising when he was President of the Cricket Board. "That was soon after Mr.Dissanayake returned from England, having obtained Test status for Sri Lanka. He told me that this was a must. But sadly, I have not seen this becoming a reality", lamented Palitha who noted that the Cricket Academy was the fountain in drilling cricketers to the national team as Australia has demonstrated. Palitha mentioned such names like Ananda College Science master, Ragunath Weerasuriya, Michael Karunaratne, the late Tilak Sudarman de Silva, the late Amarabandu Rupasinghe and the late Sirisoma Jayasinghe as some of the foremost who had teamed up with him in broadcasting cricket commentaries. And he continues batting! |
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