Remembering Dr. C.D.L. Fernando
Dr. C.D.L. Fernando the well-known ruggerite, cricketer and athlete who passed away on September 23, 1987 was a distinguished all-rounder at cricket and rugger, whilst attending Royal College, University of Ceylon, SSC and later Kandy United SC at cricket, rugger. It’s 30 years since his death. He played for Royal and was the first Bradby Shield captain and later played for University of Ceylon, CR and FC. He was the epitome of a cricketer, on and off the field. His prowess as a rugby player too was enormous.
The first leg of the Bradby captained by Fernando was tightly contested but Royal College won but in the second leg played in Kandy Trinity won the match and the Bradby Shield for the first time. When the principal of Royal College asked him as to what happened to the Kandy game, his reply had been Trinity played better than us. The first leg Royal team was made up C.D.L. Fernando (Captain), M. Kassipillai, R.M.S. de Silva, A.C.M. Nizar, N.W. Karunaratne, U. Amarasinghe, R. Rajaratnam, Mahes Rodrio (Royal and Sri Lanka Rugby and Cricket Double Captain), D.R. Amerasinghe, J.M. Kumaraswamy, L. Kumarasinghe, D. de Moor, F.D. Schoorman, T. Mukherjee and S.V. Edirimanasinghe.
Though he studied in Colombo, he made a name after coming to Kandy in the medical and sporting field. As a cricket and rugby administrator his fairness and integrity was never in question.
On C.D.L. Fernando’s contribution to cricket at Royal College, it is interesting to recall the back ground. Having played his junior cricket at S. Thomas’ College and failing to get a break, he moved to Royal College and found himself an instant success. He originally played in 1944, a brilliant fielder. His greatest performance was the brilliant innings of 85 against Trinity College, which turned certain defeat into a thrilling one run win. In his final match against S. Thomas’ it was sweet revenge when he had a match bag of 9 for 54 in 23.2 over’s, seven of which were maidens, which helped Royal to a 83 run win in 1946.
For Royal he first played under George Rajapakse in 1944, then in 1945 under Vivian de Krester, and in 1946 under Mahes Rodrigo. He was also a Public Schools athlete, and was good in the Putt-shot. He also boxed and was a cadet. In the annual 25th Law – Medical encounter, George Rajapakse led the Law side and C.D.L.Fernando was the captain of the Medical team. The Medical team was made up of players such as A.M. Mendis, P.A. Abeyarthne, R.Cooke, Aeneas Perera, Austin Fernando, Elmo Jacobs, R.A.H. Gunarthne, L.C. Feranndo, Sunil Wickramasuriya, R.S. Weeraratne, K. George, N. Patameswaram.