Maurice Fernandes - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Maurius Pacheco Fernandes was born in Georgetown, Demerara, British Guiana on 12 August 1897. He played for the Demerara Cricket Club as a teenager, gaining a reputation as a good cricketer, and made his debut for British Guiana during the 1922 Inter-Colonial Tournament, facing Trinidad. Playing as an opening batsman, Fernandes scored a duck in his first innings, but made 25 runs in the second.

He was part of the West Indian team that toured England in 1923, playing twenty first-class matches against county and representative opposition. Fernandes played in over half of the matches, and passed fifty on three occasions against first-class opposition. He had reached 83 not out when his side declared against Northamptonshire, and reached 73 runs in the second innings against Lancashire in the next match, having narrowly missed out in the first innings, when he scored 49. His highest score of the tour, and his maiden first-class century came against Leicestershire, when he hit 110 runs. In A History of Cricket, H. S. Altham and E. W. Swanton describe the touring side as one which "proved themselves equal to the best." The team relied heavily on the batting of George Challenor, who struck six centuries, and it was only Challenor that Fernandes trailed in the batting averages on the tour: he scored 523 runs at an average of 34.86, and was one of only two players other than Challenor to score a century for the West Indies.

During the Inter-Colonial Tournament in October 1925, Fernandes made significant scores in each of British Guiana's matches: he scored 89 runs in the first innings of their match against Barbados, helping his side to open up a 144-run first innings lead, which they converted into an eight wicket victory. In the subsequent match against Trinidad, he reached 124, but lacked support from his teammates, three of whom fell just short of half-centuries. British Guiana eventually lost the match by two wickets. In the following February, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) toured the West Indies, playing matches in Barbados, Trinidad, British Guiana and Jamaica. Three of the matches, one in each location excluding Jamaica, was against representative West Indies sides: Fernandes played in the match held in British Guiana, but not in either of the others, and also played in both matches between British Guiana and the touring MCC. In the last of these matches, he was selected as captain of the British Guiana side, and marked the occasion by scoring 120 in his team's only innings of a drawn match. He remained as captain for the colony's 1927 match against Barbados, in which their opponents scored 715/9 declared: the second highest innings score made against the team.