'One of Sri Lanka's best cricket administrators'

At the felicitation to Gwen Herat on her remarkable achievement of being nominated the only woman recipient among fifty men for the ICC Volunteer Award, Samudra SC in Katuneriya, Nattandiya, Priyadarshana Perera paid a glowing tribute to Ms Herat, welcoming her.

"If there was one person who rightfully deserved the award, it is Mrs. Herat for her untiring, selfless contribution to both men's and women's cricket in Sri Lanka through which much was achieved by her perseverance.

"She walked into Puttalam District cricket arena as a novice when it needed someone as committed as she was and with the late Gamini Dissanayake's persuasion and with trust placed in her, she kicked started to what she has achieved today but sadly Dissanayake is not alive to see what she has done to cricket. He persuaded her to become the President of newly-formed Puttalam District Cricket Association and still remains the only woman to have headed a DCA.

"As she gained momentum and experience, Ms Herat rose to prove herself as one of Sri Lanka's best cricket administrators. We, in Puttalam district are very proud of her."

Sujith Fernando, a former secretary of Samudra said, "Years later when Ms Herat started women's cricket, we were skeptical as to where she was heading. But she took the whole country by surprise as she pushed women's cricket, hard enough, to reach ICC status for which she rightly deserve this award.

"During her period in cricket, we witnessed one of the best cricket administrators in the country, clean, authoritative and positive. This helped big names in the commercial sector to sponsor women's cricket." Several others too spoke.