Chandrishan’s rugby legacy bestowed on his adorable off-spring and biggest fans:
Three months ago Sri Lanka lost a rugby legend Chandrishan Perera to a debilitating illness three years after it was first diagnosed. A family lost a pillar of strength while his mates at his club CH & FC kept his spirits alive as he battled on gamely till the final whistle.
Chandrishan was the epitome of a supremely physically strong specimen of a sportsman long after he had hung up his rugby boots with an unparalleled zest for life becoming a coach, entrepreneur and commentator. It came as a shock, to all those who knew him and watched him scorch the turf like a thoroughbred dazzling with his feline speed in his prime, when he was felled by a rare neurodegenerative disorder.
He had taken several knocks in his career but always bounced with even more vigour to be the scourge of opposing defenders just like he fought against the odds till the very end even as he gracefully moved out of the public eye. Chandrishan must now be having a hearty laugh from his heavenly abode in his devil-may-care attitude after departing from this earth just days short of his 64th birthday.
But he can rest assured that his wish to see his children “happy and healthy” has been granted thanks to the magnanimity of his rugby buddies. Adversity not only reunited a family but brought out the great humane qualities from his team mates at CH and FC which had been Chandrishan’s second home since he accidentally walked into the Gymkhana Club. They rallied around to support Chandrishan like brothers-in-arms to care for him like a friend in need and also secure the well-being of his three children who were endowed with funds raised for his welfare thanks to benevolent donors both locally and overseas.
“I don’t think anyone realised the gravity of his illness till a few months went by. I know he was ill but I didn’t know to what extent he was ill because there was a time even when he was showing signs of illness, he was coming and training and doing his physical things and all that,” said Chandrishan’s erstwhile team mate Rohan Abayakoon who spearheaded the fund-raising campaign.
“Only in December 2018 that I realised how serious it was. I was made aware that he was unable to continue his training classes and all that. He was in need of medical treatment and a lot of expenses for his care. Initially I mooted a one-off contribution fund raiser on his birthday (December 29). We got him to CH and handed over the initial amount of money. And we were hopeful he would recover and that fund would suffice for him to manage all his medical bills to substitute some of the income he had lost during this time,” Abayakoon said.
Abayakoon, Yohan Pieris, Graham Raux, Ranjan Kanagasabai, Ravi Wijenathan, Kishin Butani, Sarinda Unamboowe, Savantha de Saram, Rizly Illyas, Sujantha Sukumar, Jude Pillai, Duminda de Silva, Bertie Jayasekara, Dinuk Wijerathna, Shehan Seniviratne, Janaka Herath, Capt. Nalin de Silva, Pradeep de Alwis, Lalin Tennakoon and Roshan Perera were the contributors to this fund.
In the meantime, there was a charity fundraiser in conjunction with Sri Lanka Rugby during the Colombo Origins versus Kandy Origins match at Havelock Park in March 2019. Dialog and Sri Lanka Cricket on the initiative of Christopher Dias also made a contribution.
“Thereafter the CH boys rallied round and started contributions monthly to him separately from that point onwards till the time of his demise,” said Abayakoon.
Ravi Wijenathan, Shariz, Iqbal Hassen, Kishin Butani, Ranjan Kanagasabai, Shehan Seneviratne, Rajiv Butani, YC Chang, Rohan Abayakoon, Roshan Perera, Sujantha Sukumar, Jatila Ranasinghe, Jeremy Muller, Syed Raheel, Sarinda Unamboowe, Graham Raux, Savantha de Saram and Hassan Cader contributed to the monthly fund.
“Between December 2018 and May 2019 we came to realise it was something that he might never be able to fully recover from. That it will lead to his death, I don’t think we thought that far,” added Abeyakoon who regularly visited Shan at his aunt’s place in Negombo where he was living for the past one and half years.
CHILDREN
The final contribution made to the children were funds collected during the initial fundraisers that were also put into a Fixed Deposit (FD) and contributions which were channelled monthly through Butani, Shehan Seneviratne, Ravi Wijenathan and Iqbal Hassen.
“The fund was for Shan’s medical expenses. We took a collective decision for the balance to be given to Shan’s three children with the FDs being uplifted,” explained Abayakoon recalling his meetings with Chandrishan.
“It was very difficult to converse with him. There were days when I used to go there and he could not string a sentence together. When I was with him one day he just fainted in front of my eyes. He just passed out. It was very traumatic to see a man like that going through that. When he recovered after about a minute or so I asked Shan what happened. He cracked a joke: ‘I just went away for a while’. His sense of humour was there till the end because he was a larger-than-life character,” Abayakoon recalled.
It was an evening where they regaled the exploits of Chandrishan who strode like a colossus and created ripples with his speed not only in Sri Lanka but around the world.
“He was one of the finest gentlemen to me in the world. He was a fantastic guy,” said Kishin Butani, former Rugby Chairman of CH & FC.
“He was a legend. He was an entertainer both on and off the field. He really entertained the crowd. Even the opposition crowd loved to see him play. He drew a lot of crowds,” added Butani recalling how some home matches had to be shifted from Maitland Crescent to the Sugathadasa Stadium.
“When he played against the New Zealand Forces in the Singapore Sevens, the guy who tackled him and knocked him out wanted to exchange his power with Chandrishan’s speed. His speed was something to reckon with,” said Butani relating instances where Chandrishan made the biggest impact.
At the Singapore Sevens in 1984, CH & FC stunned everyone by entering the final and were leading 16-0 early in the second half. “He (Chandrishan) was running very well. We were in the final. It was a shock to come into the final. NZ Forces could not stop him so they used rough-house tactics. Then they somehow injured him for a few minutes,” related Butani as NZ Forces went on to win the title 21-16.
When Ceylon Tobacco asked Butani to assemble a team for the Cargills International Sevens in Colombo, Chandrishan was the only local player in the Sri Lankan Invitation side which comprised Fijians. This team emerged unbeaten champions with Chandrishan being adjudged man of the tournament.
Chandrishan’s ex-wife Vrai Raymond also revealed some home truths about how he was a loving and caring father to his kids apart from being their greatest role model.
“It’s not very easy for them because although he was sick for like three years, you think you are prepared but you are never prepared. So for the kids also when he got sick it took a little bit of adjustment. They really went through a tough time emotionally and are trying to adjust to it because they were very close to him,” said Vrai.
“It was difficult for them to cope up, especially for the boys. It hit them very hard. They kind of dropped out of sport because they felt that without him there was no guide for them.
“His death is still a shock. He was healthy, no diabetes, no cholesterol problems or kidney disease. It was due to a sudden heart attack that we lost him.”
Chandrishan’s philosophy is reflected in the choices made by his daughter N’Kere, the apple of his eye.
“I am doing an internship at a financial firm, exploring my options of what I would like to do in the future,” said N’Kere, who is media savvy like her father was. She was more of a swimmer and athlete having studied at Logos College and Bishop’s College.
“I used to train regularly with my father for athletic meets,” N’Kere recalled. She also played rugby for a while. “I was ripped apart by my classmates because I played rugby so I stopped,” she added.
All three of Chandrishan’s kids were top swimmers and athletes.
“I would say his legacy is that he has given them the confidence to be whatever they want to be, not what anyone else has expectations of them. Find something they really want to do and then qualify in that rather than to qualify as a doctor or an engineer,” said Vrai.
The boys Chayaan, 19 and Tristan, 15 who studied at Logos College also played rugby. Tristan has taken part twice in the Iron Kids event, being placed among the top eight the last time.
A swimmer and long distance athlete, he does Frisbee for fitness with N’Kere but has ambitions of continuing his rugby career as a winger.
The youngest is even seriously hoping to launch out on his rugby career following in the footsteps of his illustrious father.
Asked if he is doing it because his father played and whether he could emulate Chandrishan, Tristan smiled: “Because he played and he got me into it as well. They are big shoes to fill, I don’t know. Certainly I am trying.”