Dr. C.D.L. Fernando promoted sports in Kandy

by Hafiz Marikar

Today 22nd September is the 26th death anniversary of that great sports promoter Dr. C.D.L. Fernando, who was Kandy's versatile sportsman, sports benefactor, philanthropist and above all a gentleman par excellence who left the world in 1987.

CDL, as he was known by every one, started his schooling at S. Thomas' College, Mt. Lavnia and later crossed over to Royal College where he excelled in cricket, rugger, and athletics and also was in the ring as a fine boxer.

To think or write of 'CDL' is difficult as one does not know where to start and where to end for he had such a multifaceted character as a sportsman. Sports Promoter, Doctor and Social Worker and above all a trusted and a loving friend of everyone.

His devotion to sport needs no introduction. He played Cricket for Royal and also led the side, later he played for SSC, University, Health Department, Kandy United CC, Kandy and Central Province. At Cricket, 'CDL' was an all-rounder. An aggressive batsman, a medium pace bowler and a brilliant close in fielder. He played cricket for Royal in the years 1944, 1945 and 1946. In his last game for his school in 1946, that was the "Battle of the Blues", he had a match-bag of nine wickets for just fifty four runs, in 23.2 over's, out of which seven were maidens. He pocketed five wickets in the first innings, and four in the second. His first year was under George Rajapakse 1945 captain was Vivian de Kretser and in 1946 his good friend Mahes Rodrigo.

CDL was one time, President of the Kandy District Cricket Association and he did a wonderful job for number of years and some of the committee members during his time were Dr. M.S. Uduwella, Z.M. Jahuffer, D.H. de Silva, Raja Abeyanayake, Shaw Willson, Deva Amunugama, Malcolm Perera, Aubey Kurrupu and this writer. They did everything possible to promote the game. Then came his big break in cricket were he was called to replace Abu Fuard who took short leave, as Manager of the Sri Lanka Cricket team, after we achieved Test status and Duleep Mendis was the captain. That was when the New Zealanders were here.

'CDL' led the Medical and George Rajapakse, the Law team at the annual Law-Medical game in 1949. The match was played on 10th of February at the University Grounds at Reid Avenue.

The Medical Team: C.D.L. Fernando (Capt), A.M. Mendis, P.A. Abeyartne, R. Cooke, Aeneas Perera, Austin Fernando, Elmo Jacobs, R.A.H. Gunaratne, L.C. Fernando, Sunil Wickremasuriya, R.S. Weeraratne, K. George, N. Parameswaram..

The Law Team: George Rajapaksa (Capt.), Jimmy Rajaratnam, D.P. de Silva, Lorenz de Silva, Sam Elapatha, Athas Kuthdoos, Bin Ismail, K.L.M. Perera, Tissa Wettewa, C. Dissanayake, T. Parathalingam, T.K. Haran.

'CDL' played Rugger for Royal from 1943 to 1945, and had the privilege of leading the side in 1945 and became the first Bradby Captain, in the very first Bradby game, Royal won the first leg 3-0, and in the second leg over here in the hills Trinity beat Royal 6-0. When he led the first Bradby team, the Royal team was made out of players like S.V. Edirimanasinghe, T. Mukherjee, C.D.L. Fernando (Capt), F.D. Schoorman (Who scored the first Bradby try) D de Moor, L. Kumarasinhe, J.M. Cumaraswamy, D.R. Amerasinghe, Mahes Rodrigo, R. Rajaratnam, U. Amarasinghe, N.W. Karunarathne, A.C.M. Nizar, R.M.S. de Silva, M. Kassipillai. After leaving school, 'CDL' played as a front row forward for CR & FC and later for the University. After coming to Kandy as Doctor, he was with late E.W. Balasuriya when he formed the Kandy Lake Club.