Kingsley Fernando: Best cricketer - student produced by St. Sebastian's

by Dilwin MENDIS - Moratuwa Sports Corr.

CRICKET: Mention the name Kingsley Fernando and it certainly sounds a big bell no doubt in the cricketing circles, especially in the town of Moratuwa. Kingsley was a fine cricketer in his hey days at St. Sebastian's College, Moratuwa. He had the distinction of being at St. Sebastian's College for his entire school career from 1945 to 1960.

He has the proud distinction of excelling in both studies and sports at the highest levels possible. In the good old days, like at present, cricket was the game that drew the attention of one and all.

Kingsley represented St. Sebastian's at cricket, athletics, basketball and football with cricket being his 'first love'.

Kingsley Fernando's prowess in cricket started at an early age and he captained the college under 14, under 16 teams then went straight into the first eleven team at the age of 14 years when there was no age-limit on school cricket and he captained the first eleven team in 1957 at the age of 16 years and also captained in 1958 and 1960.

One of Kingsley Fernando's great achievements was that he captained the Sebastianite first eleven team at the age of 16 years and then in the all important "Big Match" against Prince of Wales he had a century and two half centuries later on.

Big moment

The biggest moment in his cricket career came when he played for the "Sister Schools" against St. Benedict's College in 1959.

St. Benedict's batted first and scored 183 runs and the Sister College replied with 120 runs towards which Kingsley Fernando contributed 61 runs. In the second innings St. Benedict's declared at 254 for 8, with Kingsley Fernando claiming 3 for 56 in 28 overs.

Sister College started badly in the second innings and at tea they were 37 for 2 with Kingsley Fernando and A. Wickremesinghe at the crease.

At 38, Sister College lost another wicket and Kingsley Fernando was joined by skipper M. Abeyanaike. Undeterred by the huge total, both Kingsley Fernando and M. Abeyanaike treated the bowling on its merits to pile up the runs, with ease.

St. Benedict's bowling that was on top at the early stages wilted under the heavy onslaught from these two batsmen. Kingsley was the most severe of the two batsmen and reached his century in 102 minutes and smothered another 50 runs in 35 minutes. He had 22 fours and a six in his attractive knock of 151 runs scored in 137 minutes.

When play ended for the day with Sister College at 279 for 3, the fourth wicket pair had added 241 runs in 130 minutes. This score of 241 runs made in the final session could be one of the highest scores made in one session in a school cricket match.

This effort could be considered very creditable since this was made against a strong Benedictine side comprising of very talented players like Lionel Fernando, Cyril Erves, A. Gunasekera, E. Rodrigopulle, S. Jayawardene, G. Dissanayake and M. Joachim.

Remarkable recovery

Earlier in the 1957 big match against Prince of Wales College, St. Sebastian's batted first and scored 140 runs out of which Kingsley Fernando scored 68 runs. Prince of Wales College replied with 233 for 6 wickets securing a 1st innings lead of 93 runs. St. Sebastian's started disastrously in their 2nd innings and were 32 for 5 at lunch on the second day. Kingsley who was held back in the batting order to bat after lunch had to walk in at the fall of the 5th wicket, a few minutes before the lunch interval.

Kingsley Fernando and Lalith Weerasuriya, both 16 years of age resumed the St. Sebastian's batting after the lunch interval and they were responsible for making one of the most remarkable batting recoveries in the big match series.

They played the bowling on its merits and kept the scoreboard ticking at a very steady rate. At tea interval the score board read 220 for 5 wickets, and the pair had added 188 runs between lunch and tea, scoring at well over run a minute.

St. Sebastian's College batted for a further 20 minutes after tea and declared the 2nd innings at 233 for 6 with Kingsley Fernando unbeaten on 104 and Lalith Weerasuriya scoring 102 runs.

When the Cambrians batted the second time, they lost 4 quick wickets and played out time to be 56 for 4 at the close.

While at school he represented the Catamarans Cricket Club in the Sara Trophy Cricket Tournament.

Kingsley Fernando started playing representative cricket and was vice-captain of the Moratuwa schools team led by Lasantha Rodrigo in the match against the touring Indian Schools team. The Moratuwa team which included L. Gunatilake, A. Polonowita, S. Mendis, L. Weerasuriya, R. de Silva, W. G. Fernando easily beat the Indian Schools team.

Then in the Schools Quadrangular Cricket Tournament held in 1958, between Colombo South, Colombo North, Kandy and the Rest, Kinsley captained the Rest Team which included players like L. Rodrigo, A. Polonowita, C. Ernest, V. Sivanandan and N. Pararajasingham.

In the first match Rest beat the strong Colombo North team which included players like N. Kasiechetty, M. Deraraj, P. Perera, A. Ranasingha and C. Waidyaratne. In the Final, the Rest Team lost to the strong Colombo South Team led by M. Tissera and included players like N. Chanmugan, M. Dias, R. Duckworth, N. Gurusinghe, E. L. Pereira, D. Sahabandu, B. Seneviratne.

Kingsley's ability to make big scores on turf wickets came with the opening of the turf wicket at St. Benedict's College, Kotahena in 1959.

He had the opportunity of playing 4 matches on this turf wicket in 1959 and 1960, 2 matches for Sister Colleges against St. Benedicts and the school match against St. Benedicts in 1959. He had scores of 71, 61, 151 n-o, 51 and 10 at an average of 70 runs per innings.

In the College match played against St. Benedicts at Moratuwa in 1960, he scored 78 and 59. Kingsley Fernando was selected as the Best All Rounder in the schools jointly with Charlie Joseph of St. Anthony's College, Kandy in March 1959.

Five balls - five fours

Another notable performance of Kingsley Fernando was the five consecutive boundaries he scored in the 1959 Moratuwa 'Big Match' off the first five deliveries he faced from Cambrian paceman Abeysiriwardana, after the Sebastianite skipper Sirimal Fernando was forced to retire-hurt when he was struck on the face by the 1st delivery of the same over. Kingsley Fernando entered the Engineering Faculty of the University of Ceylon in June 1960. In 1960, the University cricket team was studded with brilliant young cricketers like D. H. de Silva, H. I. K. Fernando, R. Dorenagama, B. Guneratne, C. de Silva, B. Reid, M. Gunaratne, N. Gurusinghe, M. Fernando. He was a member of the University cricket team in 1961, 1962 and 1963 and the University of Ceylon under the able leadership of Carlyle de Silva won the Sara Trophy in 1963.

After graduating from University of Ceylon, Kingsley joined the Public Works Department and continued to play cricket for PWD cricket team and the Moratuwa Sports Club under skipper N. Senaratne and took over the captaincy in 1966.

He captained 3 years in 1966, 1967 and 1969. Moratuwa SC had a very strong side with Stalwarts as N. Senaratne, D. D. Jayasinghe, S. Fonseka, R. M. Fernando, S. Mendis, S. Dias, T. Meegoda, H. Aponsu, B. Perera. In the 1966/67 season, Moratuwa SC did exceptionally well to enter the final round of the tournament with SSC, NCC and Nomads. During the period 1964 - 1970, Kingsley was one of key batsmen of the Moratuwa SC team.In 1972, took over the coaching of St. Sebastian's College team and continued coaching up to 1983, except for a 2 year break in 1975 and 1976, when he was away in England undergoing postgraduate studies. During this period of coaching, the school produced cricketers of the calibre of Susil Fernando, Roger Wijesuriya, Russel Wijesuriya, Ajith Cooray, Rupanath Wickramaratne.