Sports - Badminton was his first love

An outstanding product of S. Thomas’ College Mt. Lavinia, Tony Perera, was a versatile player who excelled in many fields of sport -- namely cricket, badminton, tennis and athletics. Tony represented Sri Lanka in Badminton as a schoolboy.

He had the grit and determination to match his skills against the best in 1966 in a Thomian team led by Anura Tennekoon which had nine freshers. Tony was one of them. He opened batting with Mohan Jayasekera (brother of Ajit) and won the best freshers award in the Royal – Thomian match.

However it was in badminton that lanky Tony made his mark as a schoolboy. In the international Asian Championship staged here (Under-20), in 1967, Tony Perera led the Lankan – then Ceylon - team.

World renowned Rudi Hatano captained the Indonesian team.

Q: Who coached you?
A: Dr. A.R.L. Wijeyasekera. A pioneer of Sri Lanka badminton, he gave up an international career when he took to planting in Nanu Oya, at Radella Estate.

Q: Work and play?
A: No regrets. I played cricket for Dimbulla in the P. Sara Trophy. The team had Tony Witham, the Tissera brothers, late Ralston, Vernon, Owen Mottau, B.W.R. Thomas, Yasa Ratnayake (father of Sri Lanka allrounder Ravi). Later I went on to captain Dim-Dicks cricket team and led a Planters team to India.

Q: In what way did you serve the Badminton Association?
A: In year 2005 I was the Chairman of the national selection panel. Already I am being appointed as manager of the badminton team for next month’s SAF Games to be held here. Though I’ve excelled in other disciplines my first love was the shuttle sport.

Q: Then what made you sacrifice an international tour with the Sri Lanka team as a schoolboy?
A: The Asian Confederation Championship, in Manila. Just after leaving school I got an appointment to work as a trainee under Larry Schokman at Radella Estate. There was no question of postponing or getting special leave unlike at present times.

Q: Any regrets?
A: No I had to look into my future. I had to have something to fall back upon in later life. I joined Ceylon Tea Plantations-- a Sterling company managed by George Steuarts. Planting became a way of life to me.
To be a good planter, one has to be an agriculturist, a teacher, a disciplinarian, an engineer. Also a little bit of a politician, among other skills. To be a complete planter one has to judiciously combine these skills. It helps you to produce good agricultural and economic results.

Q: What about your two sons?
A: Angelo and Andrew were outstanding sportsmen at Royal who played cricket and badminton with much success. My wife Romanie, too was an outstanding sportswoman. She is a ‘Triple Crown’ in badminton at the Nuwara Eliya Golf Club.