32 Facts About Russel Arnold

Russel Premakumaran Arnold, or Russel Arnold, is a former Sri Lankan cricketer of Tamil descent, who played all forms of the game.

Russel Arnold played as the finisher role in the Sri Lankan team batting down the order at international level.

Russel Arnold was the first Twenty20 International cap for Sri Lanka as he was part of Sri Lanka's first ever T20I team.

Russel Arnold retired from cricket in 2007 after playing the final in 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup.

Russel Arnold played school cricket at the St Peter's College, Colombo where he received his primary and secondary education.

Russel Arnold played for Sri Lanka Under19 cricket team and impressed in the tour of England in a 3 match test series in 1992 where he scored 242 runs at the average of 48.40.

Russel Arnold first arrived to domestic cricket in 1993 at the age of 20.

Russel Arnold made his Test debut against Pakistan on April and his One day international debut against South Africa later in the year on 6 November 1997.

Russel Arnold was initially called into the Sri Lankan reserve squad for the home series against Pakistan in 1997 following his performances in domestic circuit.

Originally an opening batsman, Russel Arnold has since moved down the batting order mainly due to the rise of Marvan Atapattu.

Russel Arnold is most famous in the pearl island as a very versatile player, making him ideally suitable for the limited over version of the game.

Russel Arnold batted at no 6 for the first time in his career during the Coca-Cola Champions Trophy 1999.

The then Sri Lankan team head coach Dav Whatmore had felt that Russel Arnold could be utilised well when he plays down the order.

Sanath and Russel Arnold had a good partnership until Sanath stumped after a brilliant 189.

Russel Arnold provided good support scoring unbeaten 52 off 62 balls in the match.

Russel Arnold was part of the Sri Lankan team captained by Sanath Jayasuriya which won the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy jointly with India.

Russel Arnold is highly valued for his gritty qualities and is considered an unselfish team man.

Russel Arnold is considered an ideal No 6; he is a Methodist Christian of Tamil descent.

Russel Arnold's late cut shot is admired by many critics at that time where he used the shot so often to spin bowling.

Russel Arnold made his T20I debut against England on 15 June 2006, which was incidentally Sri Lanka's first-ever T20I match.

Russel Arnold cited the pressure of too much travel as his reason.

Russel Arnold played for Chennai Superstars in the Indian Cricket League.

Russel Arnold coached at Barker College, a prestigious private school in Sydney's north.

Russel Arnold was assistant coach to Deccan Chargers in the IPL before the team was removed from the competition.

Russel Arnold is a popular television commentator and writes a weekly Q+A column on Island Cricket.

Russel Arnold keeps his fans entertained using his iPhone app 'Ask Rusty' launched in 2012.

Russel Arnold worked as a radio broadcaster for a short period of time.

On 1 December 2016, Russel Arnold won the Dialog Sri Lanka Cricket awards for the International Commentator of the year 2015.

Russel Arnold is currently regarded as just one of two Sri Lankan international cricket commentators alongside Roshan Abeysinghe.

Russel Arnold has worked as a commentator in international cricket matches involving Sri Lanka as well as worked as commentator in Test Match Special, Indian Premier League, 2020 Lanka Premier League.

Russel Arnold has engaged in giving commentary in Tamil during a pre match analysis prior to the start of a test match between India and Sri Lanka in 2017 and in the 2020 Indian Premier League for Star Sports Tamil.

Russel Arnold was alleged that he retired from international cricket in order to play in the Indian Cricket League but he rubbished the claims.