Kandy’s cricketing legend Malcolm Perera is now very close with the Kandy cricket and is all out to make a significant contribution as a coaching administrator. He has stepped up his endeavours not only to narrow the gap but also to provide equal and fair opportunities to all the budding youngsters in Kandy.
But it will not be an easy task re-organizing a once popular sport that become unpopular and unattractive especially at club level due to poor management. But Malcolm is extremely keen on working with coaches in Kandy.
Malcolm was one of the best cricketers to come out of St. Sylvester’s College, a school which promoted the game without a playing field at that time. Now he has come back to the Committee of Kandy District Cricket Association that sounds good for the game. Malcolm fist played cricket for his school in the mid 1960s under the guidance of the late Bertie Nillgoda and later became a good coach and produced some top cricketers.
Malcolm was first a playgrounds master at the Kandy Municipal Council and from there he went on to the sports section of the Peradeniya University where he polished himself at the Physical Education Department.
His first assignment at Sri Lanka Cricket was as junior national coach 1994. He served SLC’s executive committee during 1984 under the late Gamini Dissanayake and after leaving SLC as its director of coaching he joined CSN sports network as a project director. His last assignment in Colombo was with Sri Lanka Ports Authority as head of CSR and in charge of the SLPA Premier Division cricket team.
As a level Four qualified cricket coach he had a stint at St.Sylvester’s College for 14 years, Trinity College for three years and Kingwood College for nine years. He had the privilege to lead Kandy CC, Kandy Youth SC and the Central Province teams at major tournaments organized by the Board of Control for Cricket as they were known at that time. He was also a qualified cricket and hockey umpire and a qualified coaching instructor.
He was the man who started Kandy Youth Cricket Club and people like the late DH de Silva gave him a big hand and he served in the committee of the KDCA and CPCA.
During his school days Malcolm was an opening bat at St. Sylvester’s and his opening partner was the late TE Badurdeen and later as the coach of his school he played a big role in moulding the career of Ishak Shabdeen, a double international who also excelled in hockey.
Malcolm’s prowess as a coach was spotted by Australian cricket coaches Les Lenham and Peter Philpott. He also topped the marks in the coaches examination.
Having held the post of Director of Coaching at Sri Lanka Cricket for nearly 10 years, Malcolm went over to Bangladesh to assume duties as the junior National coach where he once again stamped his class.
Some of his products were Tamim Iqbal, Kaushik Mortasa, Mohamed Ashraful, Naim Islam, Javid Islam and Hafeez Iqbal who made it to the Bangladesh team.
On his return to the country, he was appointed Manager Coaching at Sri Lanka Cricket and later to the Cricket Development section where he contributed immensely for the development of cricket especially in the provinces. No coach in Kandy could match his record.