A cricketing feat probably without a parallel
View(s):Lionel Fernando was an outstanding right-hand batsman who excelled in this role, first while playing for St. Anne’s College, Kurunegala, and later for St. Benedict’s College, Kotahena when he went on to captain the cricket first XI side in 1959.
After having received his early education at St. Anne’s College, Kurunegala, where his father was the Municipal Commissioner, Lionel Fernando, then attended St. Benedict’s College, Kotahena when he went on to captain the College first XI cricket team in 1959.
During those seasons it was no easy task to beat the boys from Kotahena. The one occasion as far as my memory serves, was when the Thomians under the astute captaincy of Premalal Gunasekera did the impossible and overcame the Benedictines.
In that year, the writer himself played against St. Benedict’s College – for Royal College, Colombo – when Lionel scored a magnificent 94 runs against us. There was no way we could control his stroke-play. It was thrilling to watch.
Little did we know that when Lionel did not turn up for the game the next day, he had actually played on the previous day whilst suffering from a bout of fever. Indeed, there could well have been a different story if he was in the best of health! Little wonder Royal College survived. Previously, Lionel excelled himself, in a match against the first XI at St. Anne’s College, Kurunegala. Lionel practically dismissed the entire opposition by himself, for 50 runs capturing all 10 wickets for 24 runs, including a hat-trick, and then scored a double-century in 157 minutes, all in a day’s play! The feat of taking all 10 wickets in an innings and then scoring a double-century in the same match is believed to be a record in Sri Lanka school’s First XI cricket.
However, his bowling fell away, but he went on to represent Ceylon in the 1960s as an outstanding batsman and a slip fielder of repute. He made his first-class debut for a Ceylon Board President’s XI when they defeated a strong Pakistan team in 1964-65.
In the 1965-66 season, Lionel top-scored with 40 runs in a one-day match for Ceylon, against the touring MCC team. In 1966-67, he toured Pakistan with the Ceylon team, playing in one of the unofficial Tests, and a few weeks later, against the star-studded touring West Indians – including Garfield Sobers, Wesley Hall et al - Lionel scored 48 and 72 not out.
In the 1970s he played league cricket in England: two seasons with Fieldhouse in the South Lancashire League and one season for Walsden in the Central Lancashire League.
Returning to Sri Lanka, he joined the Sri Lanka Cricket Foundation as the Manager of the Indoor cricket nets, and as a coach, when the writer himself was the Executive Secretary of the Foundation. Lionel did a magnificent job in this role and was a tower of strength to the Cricket Foundation until he migrated to Australia in 1984 with his family and played a few seasons of club cricket for Jacana in Melbourne.
Indeed the most endearing trait in Lionel’s character was his unassuming manner in which he conducted himself both as a person and as a coach.
In September 2018, he was one of 49 former Sri Lankan cricketers felicitated by Sri Lanka Cricket, to honour them for their services before Sri Lanka became a Full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Currently, he and his wife Stella, have settled down in Melbourne and are proud parents of sons, Tyronne and Dilshan, and a daughter Marina.