Arjuna Ranatunga

Arjuna Ranatunga is a Sri Lankan politician, former international cricketer and cricket administrator. He served as the captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team for much of the 1990s, and the team won the 1996 Cricket World Cup under his leadership. He is the serving member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka from Kalutara District.

Arjuna Ranatunga is a stockily-built left-handed batsman who led Sri Lanka to their greatest cricketing triumph, the 1996 World Cup. His innovative captaincy took a Sri Lanka team given little chance prior to the competition for cricket's greatest prize. He made his debut in Sri Lanka's inaugural Test at the age of 18, and made his country's first Test half-century. A dominant figure on cricket fields all over the world for nearly 20 years, he never shied from confrontation, defending his players and rights to the hilt.

A specialist left-handed batsman and part-time medium pace bowler, Ranatunga's career with the Sri Lankan national team began in 1983, when Sri Lanka were relative newcomers to international cricket and did not perform well against the well-established teams. He became an important player in the middle order of Sri Lanka's batting. Under Ranatunga's captaincy, Sri Lanka began to play more aggressively in both ODI and Test cricket the mid-'90s. Their growing success rate culminated with a dominating performance and triumph 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, Ranatunga became influential in the administration of cricket in Sri Lanka and entered politics, joining the People's Alliance and winning election to the Sri Lankan parliament. He served tenure as deputy minister for tourism, and later served as the president of Sri Lanka Cricket until December, 2008. He joined the Democratic National Alliance in 2010.

Despite his relative inability to scamper the quick single which is considered essential in one-day cricket, Ranatunga had an uncanny ability to keep the scoreboard ticking over using deft placement on both sides of the wicket, combined with fluent driving through the offside in particular. He was a deceptive and useful medium-pace bowler, although his bowling was seen rarely in the later part of his career. He lost the captaincy following Sri Lanka's poor showing in the 1999 World Cup, and retired from international cricket a year later, but his contribution to Sri Lankan cricket is immense. He moved into administration and was appointed chairman of the board in January 2008. He was sacked in December after a controversial tenure in which he took several decisions that went against the grain.