Canadian cricketer Achini Perera grew up learning to play the game on the streets in Markham.The Canadian Press
Achini Perera gets to tick a few boxes Saturday, playing cricket and helping raise money for a good cause.
The Canadian international cricketer is taking part in the inaugural Cricket to Conquer Cancer, a street cricket fundraiser for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation.
More than 40 teams will be participating at Celebration Square in suburban Mississauga, Ont., with celebrities including singer Jully Black, former soccer star Dwayne De Rosario and former Raptor Jamaal Magloire and West Indies cricketer Carlos Brathwaite.
Like many taking part, Brathwaite has a personal connection to the cause. His mother is a cancer survivor.
Saturday is also Cricket Day at the Park at the Rogers Centre, where the Toronto Blue Jays host the Athletics.
Perera, 24, is looking forward to returning to her roots, playing the game in the street. She and her brother started playing cricket in their basement before taking the game outside.
She began at age six, dwarfed in her older brother’s equipment. It didn’t help that he was a left-hander and she’s a rightie.
“But I’d still make it work,” she said. “It was such a humble moment when I got my own kit when I was 10.”
She soon fell in love with the game.
“I like how patient you were, how you had to be strategic during the game. And it taught me a lot about life and patience, for sure,” said Perera, whose father played first-class cricket in Sri Lanka.
Perera would go to her brother’s games, hoping someone might not show up so she would be allowed to fill in. When she was 12, while playing a game with boys, she was scouted by George Codrington, a former Canadian international who was the national women’s coach at the time.
She was invited to train with the senior women’s side and was an alternate in 2012 when the women went to Ireland to play a World Twenty20 tournament qualifier.
Perera made her senior debut against the U.S. in May 2019 when she was 19. It could have come earlier, but the Canadian women’s team essentially was on hiatus from 2012 to 2018 after losing international status.
Perera kept playing at home with boys and made her national team debut when the program returned to action.
An accomplished opening batsman, the Canada vice-captain has transitioned from a medium-pace bowler to an off-spinner.
Perera played a variety of sports, including basketball, badminton and volleyball, while attending Bill Crothers Secondary School in Markham, Ont. She also did track and field, excelling in the javelin.
“I found it quite easy because you’re throwing a lot in cricket,” she said, noting that a 600-gram javelin (the minimum weight for women’s competition) seems light in comparison.
Growing up, Perera spent time playing cricket in England, Sri Lanka, the U.S. and the West Indies.
Perera and Canada finished runner-up to the U.S. in Buenos Aires in March at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Americas Region Qualifier, missing out on the chance to advance to the final stage of T20 World Cup qualifying.
The U.S. defeated Canada by 78 runs to win the four-team Americas tournament with Perera the only Canadian to reach double figures with the bat, with 19 runs off 28 balls.
Both teams were 4-1-0 going into the deciding match with the U.S. atop the standings by virtue of a superior run rate. Canada had defeated the Americans by nine runs in their first game at the qualifier.
Perera saw positives despite not moving on.
“You learn something with every tour,” Perera said. “How you can improve as a unit … Being sad about it for the next two years is not the goal. The goal is to actually get better.”
Unlike the Canadian men, the women’s team is not under contract to Cricket Canada. But Perera said the women get paid when they play international tournaments.
“We do love playing the game but we have other jobs too,” said Perera, who works as a timekeeper for Greater Toronto Hockey League and other leagues. “We would love a contract but we don’t mind it because our passion comes first.”
Outside the cricket pitch, Perera was featured in an Estee Lauder ad in 2021.
With cricket coming to the Olympics in 2028, the T20 version of the sport will get a huge platform in Los Angeles. But Canada will be watching from the sidelines with only six men’s and six women’s teams taking part.
“We’re a little bit far off, to be completely honest with you,” said Perera. “But regardless, seeing cricket being introduced in the Olympics honestly makes me feel so humble. I’m glad and I’m more than happy to watch their countries.
“And if we do have that chance (in the future), I know the girls are actually ready to take that step forward.”
Canada is currently ranked 31st by the International Cricket Council (ICC) among women’s Twenty20 International (T20I) countries with the U.S. No. 24.
Cricket to Conquer Cancer and Cricket Day at the Park are sponsored by TD.
