ARJUNA RANATUNGA
Arjuna Ranatunga (Sinhala:අර්ජුන රණතුංග; born 1 December 1963) is a Sri Lankan politician, former international cricketer and cricket administrator. He served as the captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team for much of the 1990s, and the team won the 1996 Cricket World Cup under his leadership. He is the serving member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka from Kalutara District.
A specialist left-handed batsman and part-time medium pace bowler, Ranatunga's career with the Sri Lankan national team began in 1983, when Sri Lanka were relative newcomers to international cricket and did not perform well against the well-established teams. He became an important player in the middle order of Sri Lanka's batting. Under Ranatunga's captaincy, Sri Lanka began to play more aggressively in both ODI and Test cricket the mid-'90s. Their growing success rate culminated with a dominating performance and triumph in the 1996 Cricket World Cup. Although some of his actions caused some controversy, Ranatunga was praised for his leadership in raising a team long regarded as underdogs to the status of world champions.
Upon retirement from playing cricket, Ranatunga became influential in the administration of cricket in Sri Lanka and entered politics, joining the People's Alliance and winning election to the Sri Lankan parliament. He served a tenure as deputy minister for tourism, and later served as the president of Sri Lanka Cricket until December 2008.He joined the Democratic National Alliance in 2010.
Contents
1. Early days
Ranatunga comes from Gampaha, a town twenty miles north of Colombo. He, along with his brothers, studied at Ananda College Colombo where his mother was a teacher. Arjuna's cricketing career started and was carefully nurtured at school. He played cricket for both the junior and senior teams and captained the Ananda College senior team for two years.
2.First-class and Test debuts
A left-handed batsman and useful right arm medium pace bowler, he made his first-class debut in 1981 at the age of eighteen and a year later played in Sri Lanka's inaugural Test match. He went on to score Sri Lanka's first half century in this game. Also, he is the only player in the history of cricket, who played a country's first test and the 100th test.
3.Sri Lankan captaincy
Ranatunga went on to captain Sri Lanka in 1988, taking control of the national team for the next 11 years, transforming it from a weak, routinely defeated team into a competitive and successful unit. He was widely recognised as a belligerent leader and was famous for defending his players at all costs regardless of what they did.[citation needed]
4.Controversies
Fitness
Ranatunga's weight was also notable for being grossly excessive, and gave rise to an incident during a game played in humid conditions when he called for a runner, claiming that he had "sprained something"; opposition (Australian) wicket-keeper Ian Healy responded that he could not get a runner for being "an overweight, unfit, fat cunt", a comment picked up by the stump microphones and broadcast on television. Ranatunga was known for controversially calling a runner during long innings due to his level of fitness, which allowed him to get a lot more runs for his shots, as he was a very slow runner; apart from boundaries, he usually walked singles or jogged slowly for two or three runs even if the ball almost went to the boundary. After the second final of the One Day triangular series in Australia in the 1995/6 season, when the incident with Healy occurred, Ranatunga instructed his players not to shake the Australian players' hands. During this match, Sanath Jayasuriya and Australian paceman Glenn McGrath were also involved in physical jostling; Jayasuriya accused McGrath of racially abusing him, a claim that the bowler denied.
Defence of Muralitharan
Ranatunga is also remembered for his stand in a One Day International against England. Australian Umpire Ross Emerson called Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing. (Muralitharan was subsequently cleared by bio-mechanical experts hired by the ICC) Ranatunga exchanged heated words with umpire Emerson and led his team to a point just inside the boundary line, halting play and giving the impression that he was about to forfeit the match, until the Sri Lankan management conferred with him and play resumed. English captain, Alec Stewart, was openly critical of Ranatunga's behaviour. In a comment caught on the stump microphone he was heard to say to Ranatunga "Your conduct today has been appalling for a country's captain". The match was bad-tempered, with instances of shoulder-bumping.
Wrangles with Warne
He is noted also for his repeated intense criticism of the Australian team, especially his long-standing rivalry with Shane Warne. While this saw him a maligned figure among the Australian public, who ridiculed his brinkmanship, his ability to lead the long-standing minnows of world cricket to a World Cup win, over Australia in the final, is arguably one of the greatest displays of captaincy in the history of cricket. Australia was renowned for intimidating its opponents, and Ranatunga's ability to take on and rattle the team of renowned sledgers inspired his players to stand up to them in an era in which few other sides could.
During the 1996 World Cup, Ranatunga claimed that Warne was overrated, and during the final, Warne misexecuted a flipper, which turned into a full toss. Ranatunga pulled it over the boundary for the six and then stuck his tongue out at Warne. During the 1999 World Cup, Warne wrote a column calling Ranatunga a "disgrace". The Sri Lankan shot back by referring to his country's cultural heritage and then mocking Australia over convict settlement.
In 2005, Warne mocked Ranatunga's rotund figure, which had become more ample since his retirement, suggesting that he had swallowed a sheep.
There has always been between Warne and Ranatunga a grudging mutual admiration. When the former visited Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami to aid Muralitharan in his "great work"there, he developed an amiable rapport with his long-time foe: "We even wagged," he confirmed later.Not long after, however, Ranatunga was lambasting him in a scathing newspaper attack.
"You can't be mates with everyone," Warne wrote in his 2008 book Shane Warne's Century, serialised by The Times in September, "and if there was any way I could knock him down to number 101 for the purposes of this book, I'd be delighted to do so. But having taken on the task, I want to do it seriously, and the fact is that Ranatunga helped to put Sri Lanka on the cricket map. And you know what? Deep down, I'll quietly admit that I rated him as a cricketer."
5.1996 World Cup
The Sri Lankan national team were considered perpetual underdogs but this image changed completely during the 1996 Cricket World Cup, when Sri Lanka defeated tournament favourites Australia to win it under the captaincy of Ranatunga. This victory, for which Ranatunga was a pivotal part both as batsman and captain, started a new era of Sri Lankan competitiveness on the global stage; they had previously never passed the group stage of a world cup.
Final cricketing days
Ranatunga lost the national team captaincy in 1999 after Sri Lanka's poor showing at the World Cup in England, although he was chosen as one of five Wisden Cricketers of the Year for that year. He retired from playing cricket in 2001.
6.After cricket politics
He entered into politics by joining the PA led by Chandrika Kumaratunga. Later, he was the Deputy Minister of Tourism for Sri Lanka. In 2010, Ranatunga left PA and joined DNA endorsing[9] Presidential Candidate Sarath Fonseka. After a rift with party leader Fonseka, on September 2012, he resigned from the party.
7.Career highlights
Tests
Test debut: vs England, Colombo, 1981–1982
Last Test: vs South Africa, Colombo, 2000–2001
Ranatunga's highest Test batting score of 135 not out was made against Pakistan, Colombo, 1985–1986
His best Test bowling effort of 2 for 17 came against New Zealand, Kandy, 1983–1984
Ranatunga's captaincy record was as follows: 56 matches, 12 wins, 19 losses, 25 draws.
One-day Internationals
ODI Debut: vs England, Colombo, 1981–1982
Last ODI: vs Kenya, Southampton, 1999 World Cup
His highest ODI batting score of 131 not out was made against India, Colombo, 1997
Ranatunga's best bowling figures of 4 for 14 came against India at Kanpur in 1986–1987
His captaincy record was as follows: 193 matches, 89 wins, 95 losses, 1 tie, 8 no result
Until New Zealand's Stephen Fleming overtook him in October 2006 at the ICC Champions Trophy, Ranatunga held the record for captaining the most ODI matches.
Arjuna Ranatunga
Sri Lanka
Full name: Arjuna Ranatunga
Born:
December 1, 1963, Colombo
Current age: 49 years 126 days
Major teams: Sri Lanka, Sinhalese Sports Club
Batting style: Left-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm medium
| Mat | Inns | NO | Runs | HS | Ave | BF | SR | 100 | 50 | 6s | Ct | St | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tests | 93 | 155 | 12 | 5105 | 135* | 35.69 | 4 | 38 | 40 | 47 | 0 | ||
| ODIs | 269 | 255 | 47 | 7456 | 131* | 35.84 | 9571 | 77.90 | 4 | 49 | 63 | 0 | |
| First-class | 205 | 295 | 32 | 11641 | 238* | 44.26 | 25 | 63 | 108 | 0 | |||
| List A | 307 | 290 | 53 | 8491 | 131* | 35.82 | 4 | 55 | 78 | 0 |
| Mat | Inns | Balls | Runs | Wkts | BBI | BBM | Ave | Econ | SR | 4w | 5w | 10 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tests | 93 | 56 | 2373 | 1040 | 16 | 2/17 | 2/20 | 65.00 | 2.62 | 148.3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ODIs | 269 | 135 | 4710 | 3757 | 79 | 4/14 | 4/14 | 47.55 | 4.78 | 59.6 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| First-class | 205 | 7096 | 3085 | 94 | 5/45 | 32.81 | 2.60 | 75.4 | 2 | 0 | |||
| List A | 307 | 5338 | 4255 | 98 | 4/14 | 4/14 | 43.41 | 4.78 | 54.4 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
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