50 Facts About Arjuna Ranatunga

Deshamanya Arjuna Ranatunga, is a Sri Lankan politician and former cricketer, who was the 1996 Cricket World Cup winning captain for Sri Lanka, and scored the winning boundary in the final.

Arjuna Ranatunga is regarded as the pioneer who lifted the Sri Lankan cricket team from underdog status to a leading force in the cricketing world.

Arjuna Ranatunga served a tenure as deputy minister for tourism, and served as the president of Sri Lanka Cricket until December 2008.

Arjuna Ranatunga joined the Democratic National Alliance in 2010 and contested the 2010 elections.

Arjuna Ranatunga was known for nurturing young cricket talents including the likes of Praveen Jayawickrama in their young days to take up the sport of cricket seriously.

Arjuna Ranatunga was recently appointed the interim head of the Sri Lanka Cricket after the Sri Lankan government suspended the Sri Lanka Cricket Board after their loss to Indian Cricket Team in the ongoing Cricket World Cup.

Arjuna Ranatunga is the son of Reggie Padmasena Ranatunga, the third Governor of Sabaragamuwa, serving between June 2005 and February 2008.

Arjuna Ranatunga has five siblings; cricketer Sanjeeva Ranatunga, along with Dammika Ranatunga, Nishantha Ranatunga, Prasanna Ranatunga, and Ruwan Ranatunga.

Arjuna Ranatunga was born on 1 December 1963 in Gampaha near Colombo.

Arjuna Ranatunga has a son Dhyan Ranatunga who is a cricketer who currently lives in United States and in 2021, he was signed to play for Minor League Cricket tournament in the USA.

Arjuna Ranatunga received his education at Ananda College, which has produced many known faces in Sri Lanka.

Arjuna Ranatunga won the Observer Sri Lankan Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year award on two occasions in 1980 and 1982 and became the first person to receive the award twice.

Arjuna Ranatunga played for Sri Lanka under-20 against India under-20 in 1980.

Arjuna Ranatunga made his test debut on 17 February 1982 against England at the age of 18 in Sri Lanka's first ever test match at the P Sara Oval.

Arjuna Ranatunga scored 50 on test debut and became the first Sri Lankan to score a half century in test cricket.

Arjuna Ranatunga was working as an insurance broker in his early days of his international career.

Arjuna Ranatunga made his debut World Cup appearance for Sri Lanka during the 1983 Cricket World Cup.

Arjuna Ranatunga then featured in Sri Lanka's historical test match against England at Lord's in 1984 which marked Sri Lanka's first ever test match at Lord's.

Arjuna Ranatunga was a key member of the Sri Lankan side which won its maiden Asia Cup title in 1986.

Arjuna Ranatunga top scored for Sri Lanka in the 1986 Asia Cup final against Pakistan scoring 57 runs off just 55 balls to propel Sri Lanka to a comfortable run chase of 192 with 7.4 overs to spare.

Arjuna Ranatunga was the leading run scorer of the tournament with an aggregate of 105 runs and was adjudged as the player of the series in addition to his all-round display in the tournament taking 4 wickets.

Arjuna Ranatunga went on to captain the Sri Lanka national cricket team in 1988, taking control of it for the next eleven years, transforming it from a weak, routinely defeated team into a competitive and successful unit.

Arjuna Ranatunga propelled Sri Lanka in a massive run chase of 313 against Zimbabwe at the 1992 World Cup by scoring unbeaten 88 which marked the first instance that a team had successfully chased down the target in excess 300 in ODI history.

Arjuna Ranatunga led the team to win the 1996 World Cup and he scored the winning runs for Sri Lanka in the final and remained unbeaten on 47.

Arjuna Ranatunga's strategies were commended by many cricketing greats and followed by their teams.

Arjuna Ranatunga 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.

Arjuna Ranatunga was widely recognised as a belligerent leader and was famous for defending his players at all costs regardless of what they did.

Arjuna Ranatunga captained Sri Lanka to triumph at the 1997 Asia Cup at home defeating India in the final to lift their second Asia Cup title and it happened to be the first Asia Cup title for Sri Lanka since 1986 after a gap of 11 years.

Arjuna Ranatunga was the top run scorer of the 1997 Asia Cup tournament with a tally of 272 runs with a remarkable average of 136 including a century and two fifties.

Sri Lanka secured a memorable 10 wicket win in that one-off test match and Arjuna Ranatunga became the first Sri Lankan captain to register a test victory in England.

Arjuna Ranatunga led the national team to victory in the 1996 World Cup.

Arjuna Ranatunga represented Sri Lanka in 93 Tests and 269 One-Day Internationals.

For batsmen with over 100 runs in the tournament, Arjuna Ranatunga had the second highest strike rate with 114.76.

Arjuna 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, Arjuna Ranatunga played in Sri Lanka's 100th Test match, becoming the only player to represent his country in their first and hundredth Test.

Arjuna Ranatunga retired from playing cricket in 2001 and became a television commentator.

Arjuna Ranatunga was then appointed as the chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket in January 2008.

Arjuna Ranatunga was known for controversially calling a runner during long innings due to his level of fitness and he had reportedly twisted his ankle.

Arjuna Ranatunga is remembered for his stand in a One Day International against England.

Not long after Arjuna Ranatunga was lambasting him in a scathing newspaper attack.

Arjuna Ranatunga urged the ICC to ban Warne from participating at the 2003 Cricket World Cup after the latter had reportedly failed drugs test prior to the World Cup.

Arjuna Ranatunga urged all Sri Lankan players to refrain from taking part in the 2013 IPL season due to the fact that Sri Lankan players were banned from featuring in IPL matches in Chennai by the Government of Tamil Nadu.

In July 2017, Arjuna Ranatunga made a serious allegation that the 2011 Cricket World Cup Final match between India and Sri Lanka was fixed.

Arjuna Ranatunga demanded a probe into the events at the final match.

Arjuna Ranatunga has blamed the cricket officials for not taking responsibility which has led to a significant downfall of Sri Lankan cricket and has repeatedly called for restructuring of the domestic structure in Sri Lanka which has been diluted with numerous clubs featuring in domestic first-class cricket competitions.

Arjuna Ranatunga slammed Sri Lanka Cricket for recruiting foreign coaches instead of grooming young talents and termed the foreign coaches as "garbage".

In June 2021, he criticised sports minister Namal Rajapaksa for failing to solve the issues in the cricket administration despite the fact that Namal had invited Arjuna Ranatunga to rectify the current state of Sri Lanka cricket and the loopholes in the system.

In 2018, an Indian flight attendant accused Arjuna Ranatunga of harassing her at a hotel in Mumbai.

Arjuna Ranatunga 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.

In 2010, Arjuna Ranatunga left the UPFA and joined the Democratic Party of the DNA led by Sarath Fonseka, and was made the deputy leader of the Democratic Party.