Arjuna Ranatunga

Deshamanya Arjuna Ranatunga (අර්ජුන රණතුංග; அர்ஜூன ரணதுங்க; born 1 December 1963), 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.

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

After retirement, he worked in many posts of Sri Lanka Cricket administration.

He was born on 1 December 1963 in Gampaha near Colombo.

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

Ranatunga received his education at Ananda College, which has produced many known faces in Sri Lanka.Marvan Atapattu Sidath Wettimuny, Thilan Samaraweera, Dinesh Chandimal and Thilina Kandamby are among the players to pass out from Ananda College.

He 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.

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

In his very first game, he scored 128 not out.

That Indian team featured the likes of Ravi Shastri, Lalchand Rajput, Sadanand Vishwanath, Chandrakant Pandit, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan and Bharat Arun.

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.

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

He also shared a 99 run partnership with Ranjan Madugalle for the fourth wicket in Sri Lanka's inaugural test match.

He was also working as an insurance broker in his early days of his international career.

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

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

He along with Asanka Gurusinha became the first pair of Sri Lankan batters to bat out the entire day of a test match for Sri Lanka with an unbroken partnership of 240 runs on a wicketless final day of the match against Pakistan at the P. Sara Oval in 1986 which also eventually led to a draw.

Both came on to bat on a decisive fourth day of the test match when Sri Lanka was reeling at 83/3 and the duo endured resistance against the Pakistani bowling attack with the likes of Imran Khan, Abdul Qadir and Wasim Akram.

Ranatunga ended up with a career best knock of unbeaten 135 while Gurusinha remained undefeated on 116 as Sri Lanka posted 323/3 at the end of the play on Day 5.

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

He also 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.

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

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.

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

Aravinda de Silva was the team captain at the 1992 World Cup.

He 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.

His innovative captaincy took a Sri Lanka team, given little chance prior to the competition, for cricket's greatest prize.

His strategies were commended by many cricketing greats and followed by their 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 still followed by the batsmen in the Powerplays.

Upon retirement from playing cricket he entered politics, joining the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and entered parliament, from Colombo District, in the 2001 elections.

By entering his father's stream of politics, Ranatunga started his political career in 2005, and is now the former cabinet Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation.

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

His mother Nandani Ranatunga is a retired teacher.

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

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.

In January 2021, he revealed that he would distance himself from the United National Party and would not take part in party activities in the future.

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

He was recently appointed as 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.