Russel Arnold

Russel Arnold

Personal information
Batting style	Left-handed batsman (LHB)
Bowling style	Right-arm off break (OB)
Career statistics
Competition	Tests	ODIs
Matches	44	180
Runs scored	1821	3950
Batting average	28.01	35.26
100s/50s	3/10	1/28
Top score	123	103
Balls bowled	1334	2157
Wickets	11	40
Bowling average	54.36	43.47
5 wickets in innings	-	-
10 wickets in match	-	n/a
Best bowling	3/76	3/47
Catches/stumpings	51/-	48/-
Source: [1], May 2 2007

Russel Premakumaran "Rusty" Arnold (රසල් ආනල්ඩ්)(born October 25, 1973, Colombo) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer of Tamil descent. Arnold made his Test debut against Pakistan in 1997 and his One day international debut against South Africa later in the year. Originally an opening batsmen, Arnold has since moved down the batting order. He is most famous in the pearl island as a utility and very versatile- making him ideally suitable for the limited over version of the game. However, when he started his career, he was seen primarily as a solid top order batsmen where he impressed against Australia during the AIWA cup of 1999, as well as the subsequent test series against them, where he batted at no. 3. Failure in the 2003 Cricket World Cup saw him sidelined for many months. However, he fought his way back into the side with a string of good scores in domestic cricket for his club, Nondescripts. A calm and cool player in a crisis situation, Arnold has dragged Sri Lanka out of many sticky situations. He is highly valued for his gritty qualities and is considered an unselfish team man. He is considered an ideal No. 6; he is a Methodist Christian and speaks Tamil as does Muttiah Muralitharan. Nicknamed "Rusty" by Roshan Mahanama and Pramodya Wickramasinge, due to it being a very common nickname for the name Russel, and also it complemented his batting style as tough and durable- though not really pretty.

During April 2007 he announced, through team manager Michael Tissera, a shock to Sri Lankan cricket that he intended to retire from the international cricketing scene after the World Cup final. He cited that the pressure of too much travel as his reason.

He is currently playing A grade cricket in Sydney for Hornsby District Cricket Club and has also played numerous games for the Melbourne Super Kings in Melbourne. He is also coaching at Barker College a prestigious private school in Sydney's north.

Career highlights

Test cricket

• Debut: 1st Test, Sri Lanka vs. Pakistan, Colombo, April 1997.
• Highest score: 123 vs. Pakistan, Lahore, March 1999.

One-day cricket

• Debut: Sri Lanka vs. South Africa, Lahore, November 1997.
• Highest score: 103 vs. Zimbabwe, Bulawayo, December 1999.

External links

• Cricinfo Player Profile: Russel Arnold