Arjuna Ranatunga

Honourable Arjuna Ranatunga MP
Member of Parliament for Kalutara District
Incumbent
Assumed office 22nd April 2010
Personal details
Born	(1963-12-01) December 1, 1963 Gampaha, Sri Lanka
Nationality	Sri Lankan
Political party	Democratic National Alliance
Spouse	Samadara Ranatunga
Alma mater	Ananda College
Occupation	Politician, Cricketer

Arjuna Ranatunga

Personal information
Full name	Arjuna Ranatunga
Nickname	Captain Cool
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Batting	Left-hand
Bowling	Right-arm medium
Role	Batsman
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1982–2001	Sinhalese Sports Club
Career statistics
Competition Tests ODI Matches 93 269 Runs scored 5,103 7,456 Batting average 35.69 35.84 100s/50s 4/38 4/49 Top score 135* 131* Balls bowled 2373 4710 Wickets 16 79 Bowling average 65.00 47.55 5 wickets in innings 0 0 10 wickets in match 0 n/a Best bowling 2/17 4/14 Catches/stumpings 47/– 63/–
Source: [1]

Arjuna Ranatunga (Sinhala:අර්ජුන රණතුංග) (born 1 December 1963) is a retired Sri Lankan cricketer and politician. He was the captain of Sri Lankan cricket team, and led them to an unbeaten title-winning campaign at the 1996 Cricket World Cup. Ranatunga was the chief of Sri Lanka Cricket until December 24, 2008.

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.

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.

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.

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 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, given 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 over-rated, 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."

March 2009 Attack on Sri Lankan Cricket Team

In March 2009 he was again in the midst of a controversy after the Sri Lankan team was attacked by terrorists in Lahore. It is said, after many teams like India and Australia cancelled the tour of Pakistan, citing unstability in the region as a reason, Ranatunga was the one pushing really hard for the Pakistan tour of Sri Lankan Cricket team. It was said by the media in Sri Lanka and India, that one reason for Ranatunga pushing really hard for the tour was the differences he had with the International Cricket Council and the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

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.

Arjuna Ranatunga, Darren Lehmann of Australia and M.S.Dhoni of India are the only batsmen to score the winning run in the world cup (as only three teams have successfully chased a target).

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.

After Cricket

He entered into politics by joining the PA led by Chandrika Kumaratunga. Later, he was the Deputy Minister of Tourism for Sri Lanka.

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.

Career Centuries

Test Centuries

The following table illustrates a summary of the Test centuries scored by Arjuna Ranatunga

• the column , * indicates being not out
• The column title Match refers to the Match Number of the player's career

Test Centuries of Arjuna Ranatunga
	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year
[1]	111	10	India	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	1985
[2]	135*	18	Pakistan	Colombo, Sri Lanka	P. Saravanamuttu Stadium	1986
[3]	127	34	Australia	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	1992
[4]	131	43	South Africa	Moratuwa, Sri Lanka	Tyronne Fernando Stadium	1993

International Centuries ===! width="40"| !! width="50"|Runs !! width="50"|Match !! width="100"|Against !! width="175"|City/Country  !! width="200"|Venue !! width="50"|Year |- | [1] || 101* ||153 || Pakistan || Durban, South Africa || Kingsmead || 1994 |- | [2] || 102* || 166 || Pakistan || Gujranwala, Pakistan || Municipal Stadium || 1995 |- | [3] || 131*|| 215 || India || Colombo, Sri Lanka || R. Premadasa Stadium || 1997 |- | [4] || 102 || 240 || New Zealand || Colombo, Sri Lanka || Sinhalese Sports Club Ground || 1998 |- |}

See also

• List of political families in Sri Lanka
• Ananda-Nalanda

References

• Warne, Shane. "Shane Warne's Century: Ranatunga looked like he had swallowed a sheep." The Times, 27 September 2008.

Notes

External links

• Cricinfo profile on Arjuna Ranatunga
• HowSTAT! statistical profile on Arjuna Ranatunga
• 1st Asian International Sportsman ever to address the Oxford Union