Arjuna Ranatunga
Arjuna Ranatunga (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. 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.
Early life:
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.
Cricket career:
First-class and Test debuts
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.
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 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.
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.
Retirement
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. He retired from playing cricket in 2001.
Political career:
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. 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. On November 2012, he resigned from the Democratic Party, but continued his affiliation with DNA. He endorsed Maithripala Sirisena in the 2015 Presidential election, and after Sirisena’s victory Ranatunga was appointed Minister of Highways, Ports & Shipping.
Career statistics:
Test
Matches: 93
Runs scored: 5105
100s/50s: 4/38
Top score: 135*
ODI
Matches: 269
Runs scored: 7456
100s/50s: 4/49
Top score: 131*
