I interviewed HIK at his Colpetty residence.He was friendly, unassuming and obliging.He had a point to prove. According to him he had to pad up against a host of bent arm bowlers who delivered flippers, googleys on a doctored wicket, however HIK took them on the full and blasted them to all parts of the park. The bowlers were the “old guard” and according to HIK, C.T.A Schafter spearheaded this attack, who wanted a Thomian to captain the aborted tour of 1968 to England. Due to space restrictions I hope I can do justice to the interview I had with him. The following is a nice article written by my ex-coach late Mr Alban Fernando.
HIK Fernando should lead Ceylon
By A.V. Fernando (Times of Ceylon)
We hope there will be no cricket storm as time draws close for the election of an All-Ceylon captain to lead the team in the forthcoming Test against Pakistan.
Several names have been mentioned at least four in Ceylon, and now comes a fifth, that of Gamini Goonesena ex-Cambridge skipper Nottingham and NSW, plus Ceylon and also played for the Gentlemen of England and the SSC.
Quite a pertinent question to ask the pundits who control cricket is whether the man who leads Ceylon against Pakistan this month will also lead this country’s cricketer’s on their Indian tour later this year. It may be that something may arise to make the selector’s choose someone else for the Indian trip. That something can only be bad captaincy.
ONLY ONE MAN
All this apart we certainly feel there is only one man who richly deserves the honour to fill in this important position and in our opinion it can only be Dr. H. I. K. Fernando.
Familiarly known as H. I. K. Fernando needs no introduction. He has been Ceylon’s best wicket-keeper since the day he succeeded the versatile Ben Navaratne. He started playing cricket at the age of 16 for St. Peter’s. Captained the College in 1951 and 1952 and since then has never looked back. He was the best schoolboy batsman in 1952.
As an undergraduate he played for Ceylon in the, All-India, Inter University tournament and had the distinction of scoring a century against Nagpur.
He gained his Ceylon Cap in 1953 playing against Lindsay Hassett’s team from Australia and since then has figured in every Ceylon side that played visiting teams.
In 1961 he was picked to keep wickets for the Ceylon “Mirror” XI which included star’ West Indies batsmen and bowlers and created quite an impression standing up well to the West Indian speed merchants Hall and Watson.
CCA MEETING
His best achievement, according to him was his score of 79 for the CCA XI against the MCC in 1962, when Ted Dexter’s team toured Ceylon.
At the last CCA meeting, the President . R Senanayake was asked to discount a current rumour that Gamini Goonesena would be called up to captain Ceylon.
Goonesena up to the time he arrived in Ceylon had not been playing much serious cricket.
We have nothing against this ex-Cambridge skipper but the fact that he has not played serious cricket in Ceylon and is not in the position of knowing all about the Ceylon team. A full knowledge at the capability of every member of his side is a captain’s asset. This unfortunately Goonesena will not possess if he should be selected. He played a number of years for Cambridge before being elected captain. In a nutshell the above would give the readers where HIK should really be.
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