Deshamanya Arjuna Ranatunga (Sinhalese: à¶…ර්ජුන රණතුංග; born 1 December 1963) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and 1996 Cricket World Cup winning captain for Sri Lanka. Often nicknamed as Captain Cool, he is regarded as the pioneer to lift Sri Lankan cricket from underdog status to one of great forces in cricketing world. After retirement, he worked in many posts of Sri Lanka Cricket administration. Entered his father’s stream of politics, Ranatunga started his political career in 2005, and now currently is the cabinet minister of Ports & Shipping.

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.

Cricket career

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.

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.

Controversies

Fitness

Ranatunga was known for controversially calling a runner during long innings due to his level of fitness. After the second final of the One Day triangular series in Australia in the 1995/6 season, when the incident with Healy occurred, Ranatunga instructed his players not to shake the Australian players’ hands. During this match, Sanath Jayasuriya and Australian paceman Glenn McGrath were also involved in physical jostling; Jayasuriya accused McGrath of racially abusing him, a claim that the bowler denied.

Defence of Muralitharan

Ranatunga is also remembered for his stand in a One Day International against England. Australian Umpire Ross Emerson called Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing. (Muralitharan was subsequently cleared by bio-mechanical experts hired by the ICC.) Ranatunga exchanged heated words with umpire Emerson and led his team to a point just inside the boundary line, halting play and giving the impression that he was about to forfeit the match, until the Sri Lankan management conferred with him and play resumed. English captain, Alec Stewart, was openly critical of Ranatunga’s behaviour. In a comment caught on the stump microphone he was heard to say to Ranatunga “Your conduct today has been appalling for a country’s captain”. The match was bad-tempered, with instances of shoulder-bumping.

Wrangles with Warne

There has always been between Warne and Ranatunga a grudging mutual admiration. When the former visited Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami to aid Muralitharan in his “great work” there, he developed an amiable rapport with his long-time foe: “We even wagged,” he confirmed later. Not long after, however, Ranatunga was lambasting him in a scathing newspaper attack.

“You can’t be mates with everyone,” Warne wrote in his 2008 book Shane Warne’s Century, serialised by The Times in September, “and if there was any way I could knock him down to number 101 for the purposes of this book, I’d be delighted to do so. But having taken on the task, I want to do it seriously, and the fact is that Ranatunga helped to put Sri Lanka on the cricket map. And you know what? Deep down, I’ll quietly admit that I rated him as a cricketer.”

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 left the UPFA and joined the Democratic Party of the DNAled 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 highlights

Tests

Test debut: vs England, Colombo, 1981–1982
Last Test: vs South Africa, Colombo, 2000–2001

• Ranatunga’s highest Test batting score of 135 not out was made against Pakistan, Colombo, 1985–1986
• His best Test bowling effort of 2 for 17 came against New Zealand, Kandy, 1983–1984
• Ranatunga’s captaincy record was as follows: 56 matches, 12 wins, 19 losses, 25 draws.

One-day Internationals

ODI Debut: vs England, Colombo, 1981–1982
Last ODI: vs Kenya, Southampton, 1999 World Cup

• He has the record for the most number of runs scored by any batsman in ODI history at number 5 position(4675 runs) and also the first to score over 4500 ODI runs when batting at no 5 position.

International centuries

The following table illustrates a summary of the Test centuries scored by Arjuna Ranatunga

• the column , * indicates being not out
• The column title Match refers to the Match Number of the player’s career

Test centuries

Test centuries of Arjuna Ranatunga
No	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Start date	Result
[1]	111	10	India	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	30 August 1985	Drawn
[2]	135*	18	Pakistan	Colombo, Sri Lanka	P Sara Oval	22 March 1986	Drawn
[3]	127	34	Australia	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	17 August 1992	Lost
[4]	131	43	South Africa	Moratuwa, Sri Lanka	Tyronne Fernando Stadium	25 August 1993	Drawn

ODI centuries

One Day International centuries of Arjuna Ranatunga
No	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Date	Result
[1]	101*	153	Pakistan	Durban, South Africa	Kingsmead	2 December 1994	Lost
[2]	102*	166	Pakistan	Gujranwala, Pakistan	Municipal Stadium	29 September 1995	Lost
[3]	131*	215	India	Colombo, Sri Lanka	R. Premadasa Stadium	18 July 1997	Won
[4]	102	240	New Zealand	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	5 July 1998	Won

International awards

One-Day International Cricket

Man of the Match awards

No	Opponent	Venue	Date	Match Performance	Result
1	Australia	P Sara Oval, Colombo	16 April 1983	9-0-45-1 ; 55* (39 balls: 3×4, 2×6)	Sri Lanka won by 4 wickets.
2	Pakistan	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo	11 March 1986	DNB ; 74* (89 balls: 4×4, 1×6)	Pakistan won by 8 wickets.
3	India	Green Park, Kanpur	24 December 1986	31 (49 balls: 2×4) ; 6-1-14-4, 1 Ct.	Sri Lanka won by 117 runs.
4	India	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi	13 January 1987	41 (30 balls: 2×4, 3×6) ; 10-0-42-2, 2 Ct.	India won by 6 wickets.
5	India	Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah	25 April 1990	8-0-40-0 ; 85* (77 balls: 4×4, 3×6)	Sri Lanka won by 3 wickets.
6	India	Barabati Stadium, Cuttack	28 December 1990	53 (105 balls: 1×4, 1×6) ; 10-0-36-1	Sri Lanka won by 36 runs.
7	South Africa	Basin Reserve, Wellington	2 March 1992	6-0-26-2, 1 Ct. ; 64* (73 balls: 6×4)	Sri Lanka won by 3 wickets.
8	Zimbabwe	Moin-ul-Haq Stadium, Patna	15 November 1993	59 (64 balls: 7×4) ; 5-0-24-2	Sri Lanka won by 55 runs.
9	West Indies	R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo	16 December 1993	2-0-16-0 ; 66* (78 balls: 3×4)	Sri Lanka won by 3 wickets.
10	Pakistan	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo	11 September 1994	8-0-29-0 ; 82* (76 balls: 6×4)	Sri Lanka won by 7 wickets.
11	Australia	P Sara Oval, Colombo	13 September 1994	2-0-14-0 ; 59 (71 balls: 2×4, 1×6)	Sri Lanka won by 6 wickets.
12	Pakistan	Kingsmead Cricket Ground, Durban	2 December 1994	101* (108 balls: 8×4) ; DNB	Pakistan won by 6 wickets.
13	South Africa	Mangaung Oval, Bloemfontein	15 December 1994	60 (52 balls: 7×4) ; DNB, 2 Ct.	Sri Lanka won by 35 runs.
14	Bangladesh	Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah	6 April 1995	71 (72 balls: 2×4, 1×6) ; 5-0-24-0, 1 Ct.	Sri Lanka won by 107 runs.
15	Pakistan	Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi	3 October 1995	DNB ; 42 (53 balls: 3×4)	Sri Lanka won by 4 wickets.
16	Pakistan	Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah	17 October 1995	10-1-21-2, 1 Ct. ; DNB	Sri Lanka won by 8 wickets.
17	West Indies	Adelaide Oval, Adelaide	15 December 1995	10-1-24-2 ; 27 (37 balls: 2×4)	Sri Lanka won by 4 wickets.
18	India	R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo	18 July 1997	DNB ; 131* (152 balls: 17×4)	Sri Lanka won by 6 wickets.
19	West Indies	Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore	1 November 1997	DNB, 1 Ct. ; 87* (92 balls: 8×4)	Sri Lanka won by 7 wickets.
20	Zimbabwe	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo	22 January 1998	DNB ; 58* (79 balls: 4×4, 2×6)	Sri Lanka won by 5 wickets.
21	South Africa	St George’s Park, Port Elizabeth	13 April 1998	DNB, 1 Ct. ; 93* (118 balls: 9×4, 1×6)	Sri Lanka won by 6 wickets.
22	New Zealand	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo	5 July 1998	102 (98 balls: 6×4, 2×6) ; DNB	Sri Lanka won by 87 runs.