The Godfather

The heavily influential Arjuna Ranatunga played in Sri Lanka's first Test as a schoolboy and in their 100th as the senior statesman of an emerging power. Ken Piesse finds him still in fighting trim...

Accusations from miffed opponents of bringing the game into disrepute do not sit lightly with cricket's stormy petrel, Arjuna Ranatunga. He promises a front-foot reply, with the trimmings, but not until next year, for he wants to avoid any political fallout as he bids to become the first Sri Lankan to play 100 Tests.

Whilst in Melbourne for an operation to repair his left thumb, fractured in several places by another old warrior, Pakistan's Waqar Younis, in Rawalpindi in February, Ranatunga said he was preparing his book launch but he is currently contracted to the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka and so cannot be full-frontal just yet. `I have lots to say, and I will in my book. It has to be a controversial book, otherwise it is not my book. People should know what has happened.'

The former Sri Lankan captain says he does not have even one regret in more than 350 representative appearances, many of them turbulent. He concedes he might have been less militant at times, but he was only ever concerned with furthering the interests of Sri Lankan cricket. If he offended, he had to; for too long Sri Lanka and its cricketers had been treated with contempt. Helping his country walk taller has been central in the recognition process which, at the end of this year, sees England figure in their first three-Test series against the cricket-mad island nation.

"I have done what I could do for the country and our players," he said before flying back to Colombo for the visits of Pakistan and South Africa. "I may have handled some things in different ways but it never bothered me what others felt. It's very complicated to say I should have done this and that. I've been all about trying to improve our cricket and standing. That was always my ambition.'Openly arguing with umpires, a near team walk-off in Adelaide and his refusal to shake hands with Australian players at the conclusion of the contentious 1995/96 international summer cut at the very fibre of the game.

Three years later, in a Carlton & United One-Day International in Adelaide, England's then captain Alec Stewart, one of the acknowledged nice guys of world cricket, was so angry that he went on air on Channel Nine's stump microphone saying Ranatunga's behaviour as a country's captain was appalling. After a mid-pitch confrontation between Darren Gough and Roshan Mahanama, a fired-up Stewart even dipped his shoulder into Mahanama as they changed ends. When asked to explain, Ranatunga said: "What I want to know is if these particular things happened to that particular captain, how would he behave?"

Ranatunga said that the no-balling of Sri Lanka's enigmatic off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, the allegations of ball-tampering against the Sri Lankans in Perth and the persistent sledging of his players had triggered the earlier strife. Socially there was also a gulf between the teams and much unpleasantness.

"There were just so many issues, one after another," he said. "When I first came into the side, a lot of cricketing nations used to treat us like babies. They thought we were good cricketers but they automatically felt they were better. When I took over as captain I felt I'd had enough of those barbs and that we should do something about it."

Ranatunga says Sri Lankans are naturally happy, jovial and free-spirited. They cannot understand why there is so much 'warble' in world cricket. Why cannot cricket again be a basic battle of batsman versus bowler? "But it's not just Australia," he says. "This sledging thing happens all over the world. Even now it is happening too much and it shouldn't. We play hard. If I'm angry I scold myself rather than someone else." Behavioural concerns reach deeper than today's band of international players. "I blame the administrators and the umpires. They are there to control the game and it doesn't always happen."

At 36, Ranatunga has been part of the Sri Lankan team since the country's inaugural Test in 1981/82 when, as an 18-year-old schoolboy, he made a half-century against England in Keith Fletcher's farewell match in Colombo. One of four brothers to play for Sri Lanka, he had amassed 90 Tests and 269 One-Day Internationals prior to South Africa's tour. In the First Test versus Pakistan in Colombo in June he became the first player to appear in his country's first Test and also the 100th. "I still have a lot of cricket in me, depending on how I go at international level. But if I still feel I'm good enough I'd like to keep going."

He regards Sri Lanka's World Cup win in 1996 and the team's first ever win at Test level against England at The Oval in August 1998 as his most satisfying moments. He also led them to series victories in New Zealand and Pakistan during this stellar period for Sri Lankan cricket. As for the boil-over victory against Australia in the 1996 World Cup Final in Lahore, he says: "We'd set our sights on reaching the semi-finals so we could be recorded among the best four sides in One-Day International cricket. To qualify for the Final and win it was beyond all expectations."

His decision to encourage Sanath Jayasuriya to bat in the first three and then open with wicket-keeper Romesh Kaluwitharana remains one of his most successful. "A lot of people criticised me for opening with these two, but for me they were the outfit for the World Cup. They changed the complexion of one-day cricket. They weren't just sloggers. They could bat properly and leave the ball when necessary."

Asked about his own individual highs over an 18-year career, Ranatunga said his match-winning 131 against India during the Asia Cup tournament in Colombo in 1997/98 was his favourite century, especially as his team, set 228 to win, had lost Jayasuriya and their top batsman, Aravinda De Silva, with less than 10 runs on the board.

His most cherished Test innings was 84 on his debut at Lord's during the one-off Test in 1984. "I was just a year out of school. Just walking out at Lord's was a thrill. The occasion was so important."

He speaks fondly of Nalanda College and of his coaches, particularly Lionel Mendis who offered him the bat of his choice after he and his family lost everything when their house in the village of Udugampola, outside Colombo, was deliberately burnt down during an election. His father, Reggie, was one of the chief organisers for the ruling party of the day.

"They started throwing stones and we had to evacuate," he said. "I was only 13 at the time. We lost everything. We were out on the road. While it was a bad experience and it was many years before we all got back to one particular place, it kept the whole family going and made us even closer. Everyone wanted to achieve. If it wasn't for that particular incident, I may not have even played cricket."

The other important career moment for Ranatunga came when the great West Indian all-rounder Sir Garfield Sobers became Sri Lanka's national coach in 1982. "I was not in the first 38 when he came to Sri Lanka. He brought me back and worked really hard with me on my technique. I got 90 against Australia in a Test and 55 not out from 39 balls in a one-day game. He was the person most responsible for my success."

Ranatunga, who predicts that Muralitharan will eventually take 400 Test wickets as long as the shoulder soreness which he has experienced lately settles down, believes Sri Lanka's depth of reserves will continue to lift as players like Murali, who hails from Kandy, are now being developed all over Sri Lanka, and not just in Colombo and its environs.

He would also like to see a greater globalisation of the game, particularly into regions like Malaysia and the United States. He believes that administrators worldwide will be keen to assess the interest in the One-Day International series to be contested by Australia and South Africa at Melbourne's indoor Colonial Stadium in August, as it could be a lead for Test cricket to be played indoors and out of season.

"Administrators need to be mindful of what the public wants. If it means day-night Test cricket, so be it. It may not work but there need to be solutions. The Test crowds in Sri Lanka have been mediocre for years. The people just want to go and see the one-dayers."

Arjuna's top three batsmen...
1. Sachin Tendulkar
2. Aravinda De Silva
3. Martin Crowe

...And his top three bowlers
1. Wasim Akram
2. Sir Richard Hadlee
3. Curtly Ambrose

Four to Ranatunga...

Tests   O-DIs
Arjuna   90  269
Dhammika  2  4
Nishantha  0  2
Sanjeeva   9  13