The legendary statistician

The legendary cricket statistician S.S. Perera (Chandra or SS to most of us), bade good-bye last week leaving a big vacuum in the field. There was hardly a souvenir or publication published over the past so many years without SS’s input. You ask him – and he gives!

I remember working closely with him when as Publicity Manager at CTC, I was involved in producing a video with maestro D.B. Nihalsinghe on Sri Lanka’s journey to Test cricket.

It coincided with the arrival of Sri Lanka Cricket Board President, Minister Gamini Dissanayake, from London having secured Test status for the country. SS helped us out with the necessary facts and figures.

We are fortunate that Janashakthi Insurance stepped in and got SS to edit a well compiled book – ‘The Janashkthi Book of Sri Lanka Cricket’ covering the period 1822-1996. It is a fitting tribute to SS’s hard work over many decades.

SS had picked a very appropriate quote to open the narrative. On ‘Cricket,’ it says:  

“It is a science, the study of a lifetime, in which you may exhaust yourself but never your subject. It is a contest, a duel or melee, calling for courage, skill, strategy and self-control.

“It is a contest of temper, a trial of honour, a revealer of character. It affords a chance to play the man and act the gentleman.

“It means going into God’s out-of-doors, getting close to nature, fresh air, exercise, a sweeping away of mental cobwebs, genuine recreation of the tired tissues.

“It is a cure for care, an antidote to worry. It includes companionship with friends, social intercourse, opportunities for courtesy, kindliness, and generosity to an opponent. It promotes not only physical health, but mental force.”

The saying is attributed to Sir Frederick Charles ‘Fred’ Toone (1868-1930), a cricket administrator, who, in 1929 became the second man ever to be knighted for cricket-related activities. He had been a popular manager of three successive England touring teams to Australia between 1920 & 1929. Incidentally, Sir Francis Eden Lacey (1859–1946) was the first person connected with cricket to be knighted (1926).

An avid collector of news cuttings, souvenirs, magazines, books – in short, any material he could lay his hands on cricket – SS lamented on the difficulty to gather information from sources he felt would be able to help when compiling a book on cricket.

“The Board of Control lacks material for an exhaustive history. The only available literature is scorebooks collected from 1982 onwards,” he wrote in ‘A word by the Author’ in the Janashakthi book.

A few years earlier when he wrote the history of the Boards of Control for Cricket, he made a pithy comment in the preface: “It was easier to write my 165 year cricket history than obtain a few documents of the last three years from those responsible for the custody of Board publications. On inquiring I was told that they could not be found! What if a foreign enthusiast steps in to do some research?”

As for the sources for the Janashakthi book, he confessed that “fortunately a collection of nearly 100 scrap books on Ceylon cricket from 1935 and of every tour brochure published since 1911 has been invaluable in refreshing my memory of the past.” Of course, he had done a lot of reference at the National Archives, Colombo Museum library and the National Library Services Board for the 600+ page publication. SS had a solid backer in Chandra Schaffter whose name is synonymous with cricket in Sri Lanka, who was Managing Director of Janashakthi in producing the book. The task of editing was handed over to the veteran journalist S. Muthiah, who apart from his proven track record, was quite familiar with the game having been a sports columnist for several years.

The Janashskthi book is so compiled as to serve as a quick reference book where the leads are given succinctly. It is well illustrated and covers the long period in sub sections: The first half century (1832-81); Towards the first century (1882-1931); The way to Test status (1932-81); On to the world title (1982-96).  A lot has happened after that and continues to happen and I hope Janashakthi has already started working on the next edition.