Arjuna Ranatunga

Arjuna Ranatunga played cricket with the Sri Lanka national cricket team as a player and captain. He hails from Gampaha, a town located almost 20 miles on north of Colombo in Sri Lanka. He finished his studies from the Ananda College in Colombo. Ranatunga had started taking interest in cricket right from his school days and played for both junior and senior teams.

Ranatunga was a left-handed batsman and a right armed, medium fast bowler. He made his debut at first class cricket in 1981, when he was just 18 years old, for a test match in Sri Lanka. He became the first Sri Lankan to have scored a half century in that game.

In 1988, Ranatunga was appointed the captain for the Sri Lankan team and he successfully led his team for a continuous 11 years. Ranatunga was famous in the world of cricket for some unhealthy reasons. He was incapable of gathering quick singles, which is the single most important part of being a batsman on crease. He could, but, use nifty placements on the sides of the wicket driving the ball towards offside boundaries. He was well-known for defending his players anyhow against anyone.

Rantaunga has played a total of 93 test matches scoring 5,103 runs from them at the average of 35.69. He has also played 269 one day international matches and scored 7,456 runs from them with an average of 35.84. Though he was an occasional bowler, his bowling average for ODI matches is 47.55 with best bowling figures at 4 wickets for 14 runs. His test bowling averages are at an astounding high at 65 with best bowling figures at 2 wickets for 17 runs.

He was removed from Sri Lankan captaincy after the 1999 Cricket World Cup with his retirement following a year later. After his retirement, he continued to serve Sri Lankan cricket as a member of the administrative team. Ranatunga was appointed the Chairman of the board in January 2008, but was sacked in December of the same year owing to some controversial decisions.

Career Highlights

He was named the Wisden Cricket of the Year in 1999.