Arjuna Ranatunga: Difference between revisions

Deshamanya Arjuna Ranatunga (Sinhala: අර්ජුන රණතුංග; born 1 December 1963) is a Sri Lankan politician, former international cricketer and cricket administrator. He captained the Sri Lankan cricket team in the 1990s, and lead them in the 1996 Cricket World Cup victory.

A specialist left-handed batsman and part-time medium pace bowler, Ranatunga's career with the Sri Lankan national team began in 1982, when Sri Lanka were relative newcomers to international cricket and was a key player in the team. Under Ranatunga's captaincy, Sri Lanka started to improve rapidly. Their growing success rate culminated with a dominating performance and triumphed 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 he entered politics, joining the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and entered parliament, from Colombo District, in the 2001 elections. He served a tenure as deputy minister for tourism, and also served as the president of Sri Lanka Cricket until December 2008.^[3] He joined the Democratic National Alliance in 2010 and contested the 2010 elections. In 2015 General elections he contested with the United National Front for Good Governance and placed 2nd in Gampaha District, and was appointed Minister of Ports and Shipping.

He was awarded the title Deshamanya by the Sri Lankan Government in 1996 after he led the Sri Lanka to victory in the World Cup.

Ranatunga comes from Minuwangoda, a town twenty miles north of Colombo. His father Reggie Ranatunga, was a politician. He, along with his brothers, studied at Ananda College Colombo where his mother was a teacher and where he started playing cricket. He represented his school in both junior and senior teams. He has five brothers, Dammika Ranatunga, Nishantha Ranatunga, Prasanna Ranatunga, Sanjeeva Ranatunga and Ruwan Ranatunga; where Himself, Nishantha, Sanjeeva, and Dhammika all played for Sri Lanka national cricket team in different times, Prasanna, Ruwan and himself moved to politics.

A left-handed batsman and useful right arm medium pace bowler, Ranatunga made his first-class debut in 1981 at the age of eighteen and a year later played in Sri Lanka's inaugural Test match. In this match he became the first Sri Lankan to score a Test half century.

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 led the team to their greatest cricketing triumph, 1996 World Cup. His innovative captaincy took a Sri Lanka team, given little chance prior to the competition, for cricket's greatest prize. His strategies was commended by many cricketing greats and followed by other teams. He was the brain behind the strategy of scoring as many runs as possible in the first 15 overs of an ODI match in which there are field restrictions. This strategy was perfectly executed by Sanath Jayasuriya. This strategy was still followed by the batsmen in the Powerplays. He was widely recognised as a belligerent leader and was famous for defending his players at all costs regardless of what they did.^[4]

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.

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.

In June 2000, Ranatunga played in Sri Lanka's 100th Test match, becoming the only player to represent his country in their first and hundredth Test.^[5] He retired from playing cricket in 2001.

Ranatunga's weight was also notable for being considered excessive for a professional athlete. It 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 with an insulting comment, falling under what is categorized in cricket as a "sledge", which was picked up by the stump microphones and broadcast live on television. Ranatunga was known for controversially calling a runner during long innings due to his level of fitness. 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.^[6]

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.^[7]) 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.^[8]

He is noted also for his repeated intense criticism of the Australian team, especially his long-standing rivalry with Shane Warne. 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"^[9] there, he developed an amiable rapport with his long-time foe: "We even wagged," he confirmed later.^[9] 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^[10] 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."^[9]

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.

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

One Day International centuries

ODI Centuries of Arjuna Ranatunga
	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	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

He entered into politics by joining the Sri Lanka Freedom Party led by Chandrika Kumaratunga, and contested the 2001 parliamentary elections with PA from Colombo District. After the UPFA victory in 2004, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment Promotion.^[11] In 2010, Ranatunga leftthe UPFA and joined the Democratic Party of the DNA led by Sarath Fonseka, and was made the deputy leader of the Democratic Party.^[12][13][14] On November 2012, he resigned from the Democratic Party, but continued his affiliation with DNA.^{[15][16][17][18]} He endorsed Maithripala Sirisena in the 2015 Presidential election, and after Sirisena's victory Ranatunga was appointed Minister of Highways, Ports & Shipping.^[19][20]

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

• Warne, Shane. "Shane Warne's Century: Ranatunga looked like he had swallowed a sheep." The Times, 27 September 2008.
• Shenton, A. "Ranatunga's Unique Achievement", The Cricket Statistician, No. 113, Spring 2001. Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians; West Bridgford, Nottingham

• Cricinfo profile on Arjuna Ranatunga
• HowSTAT! statistical profile on Arjuna Ranatunga
• 1st Asian International Sportsman ever to address the Oxford Union^{[permanent dead link]}