H.I. Fernando was a cricketer par excellence

Dilwin Mendis - Moratuwa Sports Corr

Henry Irwin Fernando popularly known as ‘H.I.” who hailed from Moratuwa had his entire education at Prince of Wales’ College, “Cradle of Moratuwa Cricket” in the forties.

During that period there were no inter-school cricket tournaments organized by Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association for various groups like nowadays and it was confined to friendly matches under 12, 14, 16, second and first eleven and for the first eleven there were a handful of matches.

The Schools Cricket Association was formed in 1958 and the first President was the then Principal J.B.C. Rodrigo and later M.E.C. Fernando, H.L.B. Gomes and Rohana Karunarathne held this Post. Since the inception of SLSCA the age limit for first eleven was restricted to under twenty years and nowadays it is under 19 years.

From his younger days H.I. showed that he is a player of immense potential. After representing the Under 12, 14 and whilst playing for under 16 he walked easily into the first eleven team in 1944 under Paul Devadasan and the following year too under Devadasan. Others being A.J.T. Peiris and T.G.M. Perera twice in 1947 and 48 and H.I. was the Vice Captain in both those years.

When H.I. was representing Cambrians the Big Match against St. Sebastian’s was not played which commenced in 1933 and came to a halt in 1938 due to circumstances beyond control and revived in 1954 and again there was another stoppage in 1968 and 1969 due to unknown reasons.

The Big Match between St. John’s College, Panadura commenced in 1938 prior to that Cambrians had regular fixtures with Johnians since 1898 and every year they fielded good teams and coached by G.C. Roberts, a master batsman who is of West Indian origin.

H.I. was a left handed batsman and a fine all-rounder and his fielding is in the calibre of Paul Shehan of Australia. In my opinion undoubtedly the two best batsmen produced from Moratuwa Schools were left handed H.I. and right handed Duleep Mendis of St. Sebastian’s. Duleep went on to lead Sri Lanka in tests while H.I. represented Board and the National teams. (During this period there is no test matches.)

When talking about others who excelled in batting were Cambrian Lasantha Rodrigo, Vidyalian Gamini Perera and Edwin Fernando of Methodist High School for their respective schools. Both H.I. and Duleep represented Singhalese Sports Club and H.I. scored the first century in the inaugural game of SSC grounds. It was pity both these greats could not play for their respective schools in the Cambrian-Sebastian Big Match and cricket crazy Moratuwites missed both these batsmen in action.

H.I. representing school scored centuries against St. Thomas 100, 141 versus Dharmasoka, 114 and 112 against Nalanda in two respective years 111 versus Richmond, 132 against the Big Match with St. Johns and 181 versus Holy Cross and during this period they fielded strong sides. Against a star studded OBA team he served 181.

This brilliant left hander became the first School boy cricketer to amass 1,000 runs in a season in 1947. In the same year from February to November 1947 he scored 2,074 runs for both school and club level at an average of 76.8 and became the first Ceylon cricketer to achieve this rare feat. With these achievements he was picked to play for the then Ceylon team that toured Pakistan and an unofficial test against the visiting Commonwealth team.

After leaving school he joined the Public Works Department and then at Ceylon Army and later in the Colombo Municipality.

He played for Singhalese Sports Club and was the number three batsman and his name appeared very often in the Dailies for his frequent performances.

He joined his home town club Moratuwa Sports Club in 1959 and notched up the highest score of 59 against NCC in the finals.

Moratuwa SC registered their first Sara Trophy victory due to an elegant knock of 82 by H.I. against Kandy SC and in the following year he scored 132 versus the Colombo University and carried away V.V.T. Fernando Challenge Trophy for the fastest century and he missed the Marcan Markar Challenge Trophy by one run when Dr. Buddy Reid scored 155 runs against Catamarans SC where H.I. scored a scintillating 154 against formidable Tamil Union. 1963/64 season was his last appearance to Moratuwa SC and later he coached his Alma-Mater and produced cricketers of repute who excelled in school and club levels.

His first match with a foreign team was in 1947 when a strong Madras Law College team played against Moratuwa Combined Schools at Moratuwa and H.I. was the vice captain. During this period H.I. was a household name and lot of Moratuwites thronged in to the Cambrian grounds to witness their hero and he scored 30 runs and took two wickets. Apart from cricket H.I. was a fine short distance athlete who represented the public schools.