The Haisman Shield has a new star: Pine Lodge’s version of The Wild Thing

Tiron “Tino” Fernando has burst onto the A-grade stage in the past month, taking more scalps than an SAS soldier.

The 2024-25 season is Pine Lodge’s first in Cricket Shepparton’s top flight and, while the Lodgers are yet to claim their first victory, most opposition coaches from the first five rounds have made note of their lethal bowling attack.

Looking at the scorecards from Pine Lodge’s opening five matches a common theme shines through.

In round one against Katandra, Fernando dismissed three of the Eagles' top-five batters.

In round two against Waaia, the star opening bowler dismissed three of the Bombers' top four.

A similar tale is told across the next two matches when Fernando dismissed the opposition’s best batters.

Although Fernando brings a junkyard dog’s energy to a match, he doesn’t waste his effort on junk time wickets.

Born in a small village in Sri Lanka, the star Lodger didn’t pick up a cricket ball until late in his high school journey.

Having never been coached on how to bowl, Fernando naturally developed a Lasith Malinga-style slingshot delivery.

His bowling, while rapid, drew criticism from coaches over his potential longevity as his action looked like it could cause havoc on his back.

However, Fernando persevered and after finishing high school he soon found himself playing alongside future Sri Lankan national cricketers Dasun Shanaka, Dushmantha Chameera, Vikum Sanjaya and Prabath Jayasuriya at Colombo Malay Cricket Club.

His natural speed and talent led to him being invited to join various cricket development programs, but having grown up in a small Sri Lankan village, Fernando said he had no one to support him financially to pursue cricket.

“Unfortunately I couldn’t make it because (my family) was really poor — no-one could help me,” Fernando said.

“I had a hard time growing up, my mum passed away a long time ago.”

As a single parent, his father worked as a farmer and as a fisherman.

Mix that diet with walking on the sand consistently as a child and Fernando believes that is what has led to his longevity in cricket, free of any back issues.

Since first picking up a cricket ball in 2008, Pine Lodge's fast bowler has played as much as he could, in every format.

Fernando said his friends often joke about how cricket is so heavily ingrained into his life.

“I am a cricket player, if you ask any of my friends, they will always say, ‘He will be always near a cricket ground’,” he said.

“Always playing cricket; winter cricket, in Melbourne I also played indoor cricket.

“For me, it is work or cricket — I love it.

“When I am watching or playing cricket I am a free man — I have nothing on my mind.

“I don’t know what happened yesterday, what will happen tomorrow or next time, I don’t think about that, I just enjoy the game.”

Fernando’s journey to the GV

Sitting down for the interview with Fernando, two things were abundantly clear.

Firstly, his smile never seems to leave his face and, secondly, there is a lot more to his story than simply a double-page spread in a newspaper.

Fernando said his 34-year journey to where he is now, working full-time and playing the sport he loves in Shepparton, has been a long, tiring and winding road.

Having grown up in poverty, Fernando decided after finishing high school that he would seek a better life and sought asylum in a country that shared his love for the red leather ball and the English willow bat.

In 2012, Fernando said he decided to risk his life for a greater opportunity in Australia.

“I came here by boat,” he said.

“Eighteen days, it was a hard life, not knowing if I would make it to Australia.

“ Somehow I made it and went to Christmas Island — I still played cricket in the detention centres.”

First living in Adelaide to start his Australian life, Fernando moved to Melbourne the following year in 2013.

Starting through the lower-grade divisions, Fernando slowly, but surely, worked his way up through the grades, becoming a damaging quick wherever he went.

A lightning-fast opening bowler, with a deadly out-of-the-back-of-the-hand slower ball, Fernando quickly became hot property among Melbourne cricket clubs.

So much so that Fernando has called 28 clubs home during the past decade, as coaches across the region fell in love with his ability to strike early in an innings.

Fernando’s links to Shepparton began when he and his Melbourne club side came to play Old Students in a pre-season practice game.

When coming out to bat he and a fellow Lankan had some friendly back-and-forth banter out in the middle of the pitch.

After the match, they realised they were from the same village in Sri Lanka, only born a few years apart.

His new-found friend was current Pine Lodge bowler Gill Nav and eight or nine years later, it was that friendship that Fernando said drew him to Shepparton.

“I moved here about 20 months ago,” he said.

“I started playing at some clubs where I wanted to push to play A-grade, firstly at Tatura Cricket Club.

“They signed me first and then my friends encouraged me to move to Pine Lodge in B-grade and play with them.

“I said, ‘Okay, for you guys I will do it’, and that is how I started at Pine Lodge.”

For Fernando and the Lodgers, it has been a perfect pairing that has led to 42 wickets across 21 matches and promotion from the B-grade to the A-grade division.

This season, Fernando has shown no signs of slowing down as he sits on top of the wicket tally in the Haisman Shield, tied with Waaia’s Will Trower and Central Park-St Brendan’s’ Jarrod Wakeling on 12 scalps.

Fernando said he was very grateful that his long winding journey had led him to Lemnos Recreation Reserve.

“I have played at more than 20 clubs, but the community at Pine Lodge is unbelievable,” he said.

“It is like a family.

“Everyone is so nice and so close.

“They give me so much support when I am playing, cheering me on, especially Travis and Gill.”

What does his coach think?

Throughout the first five matches of the season, Fernando has taken multiple wickets in all-bar one game.

His figures, while not astronomical, demonstrate his consistency at A-grade level.

Pine Lodge coach Travis Waters said multiple factors made Fernando a star opening bowler.

“I think he is experienced and he has a different action, which the batsmen struggle with a fair bit,” Waters said.

“He is just reliable with his line and length; you back him in to bowl in the right spot for us and be consistent.

“He has a fair bit of pace about him as well and he plays a lot of cricket; he plays for us on Saturday and in Melbourne on Sunday.”

Waters said Fernando’s energy on and off the field was unmatched at the Lodge.

“He is very much loved by our boys,” he said.

“He is really encouraging to the young fellas and not afraid to give them advice.

“Even on the sidelines when we are batting he is encouraging everyone.

“Sometimes he can talk really fast and you really have to listen to hear what he says.”

While Fernando made note of how grateful he is to be a part of Pine Lodge Cricket Club, Waters said he and his players knew and appreciated the special talent and character they have in their opening quick.

“Everyone has their own story and his is very unique,” he said.

“He came to us as an established bowler, but the way he has seamlessly adapted to A-grade, which is a big step up from B-grade, has been great for our inexperienced side.

“He can hold the bat for us when we need him to, he is not just a bowler, and he is probably our best fielder as well, so he is a three-dimensional player.

“He could roll into any side in the comp right now and play in any team.”

The highlights

Across his 16 years playing cricket, Fernando has had a lot of special moments in the sport the holds dear to his heart.

One of the main highlights would be his time spent as a net bowler for the Sri Lankan national team when it last toured Australia in 2022.

Through his connection to the Sri Lankan players from his old home club, Fernando got the opportunity to bowl at some of his nation’s greatest batters.

But did he step up to the occasion and claim some top-quality scalps?

“I did,” he said with a smile.

“I love two-day cricket, I love to bowl 15 or 16 overs in a row, that’s how I am.

“I was bowling for more than two hours and (the Sri Lankan players and coaches) were surprised I wasn’t tired — I said I have been waiting for an experience like this for so long."

Fernando was asked back to be a net bowler again a few days later, but had to decline the offer to go and play club cricket.

A highlight of last season’s B-grade competition was the feat that Fernando and his close friend Nav achieved.

In a two-day match against Shepparton Youth Club United Cricket Club, the dynamic duo remarkably both secured a hat-trick within seven overs of each other.

Fernando burst through in the fourth over of the innings with his dismissals going caught, LBW and bowled, before Fernando was involved in Nav’s first wicket of his hat-trick by taking a catch.

The two bowlers were integral to the Lodgers' run towards a one-day grand final victory over Central Park-St Brendan’s at Deakin Reserve — another special moment in his career.

In round three this season, Fernando said his most recent highlight came when Pine Lodge played Tatura.

“I told everyone before the game it would be my 500th wicket and to make sure they hold on if it is a catch,” he said.

“That was a big one.

"That 500 wickets it took a long time.

“If not for COVID-19 I would have had it earlier, but I am so grateful to get that achievement here in Shepparton in this great community.”

This connection Fernando feels to the region is genuine as he emphasised how grateful he was that his journey had led him to be able to live, work and play cricket in the Shepparton community.

“I am so happy to play in the Shepparton league; it is so good,” he said.

“I love it.

“The culture, the people; I really like it.”