West Herts will see the return of their Sri Lankan star, Priyamal Perera, for their 2022 Hertfordshire Cricket League campaign.
The meteoric rise to national honours
Perera is an explosive batter who bowls off-spin who broke into the Sri Lankan ODI side in March 2019, playing 2 matches against South Africa (0 and 33).
Perera’s meteoric rise through to the national side was based on his domestic exploits and success for Sri Lanka over, over the past few years.
Such was Perera’s talent, he was fast-tracked to play for Sri Lanka A (in August 2014 v Hampshire) before playing a domestic List A game. He had, though, made his first-class and T20 debut’s for Colts Cricket Club towards the previous summer, following 14 matches for Sri Lankan Under-19. He excelled for the Under-19s, particularly in the ICC World Cup in February 2014, finishing as Sri Lanka’s second-leading run-scorer (204 runs at 40.80).
Domestic dominance
Thereafter, Perera starred in Sri Lanka’s Premier Tournament in 2015/16 hitting 526 runs at 43.83, before season tallies of 410 at 31.53 (2016/17) and 830 at 39.52 (2017/18) to keep him on the national radar.
However, it was his 2018/19 season for Colts that generated his national selection, hitting 1,001 runs at 83.41 with 4 centuries, including a sensational double (206*).
Whilst he failed to replicate his first-class numbers in 2019/20, scoring 304 runs at 27.63, he belted successive tons in List A cricket last summer (2020/21), to average 101 in SLC’s Limited Overs Tournament.
Hertfordshire League stand-out, now set to return in 2022
Thereafter, the Sri Lankan star embarked on his maiden UK stint in 2021. Playing for West Herts in the top tier of the Hertfordshire Cricket League, he was a resounding success. Unsurprisingly, after his 615 runs at 36.18 and 36 wickets at 16.94 with his off-spin, the club were swift to re-sign Perera for their 2022 campaign.
