[Video] Arjuna Ranatunga 90 Vs Australia, Kandy | 1983

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For a figure short and somewhat wider than the average cricketer, Sri Lanka's captain Arjuna Ranatunga cast a long shadow during the 1998-99 summer. Whether strolling his singles, commenting severely on Australian crowds, or wagging his finger at an umpire, he tested a host of assumptions about cricket behaviour. Did his militancy constitute, as Alec Stewart decided, "a disgrace"? Or was Arjuna Ranatungahe, in the words of no less an authority than Peter Roebuck, "a cricketer on beautiful provocations"?

Rather than addressing this question directly, it is perhaps more fruitful to ask two others. From where does Arjuna's intense competitiveness spring? And why does he arouse, especially among Australians such intense feelings?

It is not as if Ranatunga is a newcomer to the school of cricket combat. International cricket's longest-serving player, he has always been a fighter, often at the outset of his career in losing causes. Australia saw evidence of his resilience in their first two Tests against Sri Lanka, at Kandy in April 1983 and Perth in February 1988. Deteriorating pitches on both occasions favoured the team winning the toss, and in both cases the Australians made the most of these advantages in completing victories by more than an innings. But in both cases Ranatunga stood tall, making 90 and 92 in the former match, 55 and 45 in the latter, top score in three of the four innings.

Ranatunga also stood out in other on-field circumstances. Sri Lankan cricketers were renowned for their gentlemanly qualities. Asked about "sledging" on their 1981 tour of England, their assistant manager replied ingenuously: "Sludging? What is sludging?" Ranatunga soon discovered it, and was apt to return it. The story goes that on an occasion, Captain Ranjan Madugalle was being subjected to a fearsome assault, by ball and mouth from Imran Khan. Ranatunga told Madugalle to concentrate on his batting and began needling Imran so that the abusive focus shifted towards him, at which point Ranatunga issued Pakistan's skipper a typical challenge, "You have the ball. I have the bat. Let's see who wins."

The incident gains sharpness from its cultural context, for it involves a reversal of traditional Sri Lankan hierarchy; it is a mallie (younger brother or junior) protecting an aiyya (elder brother). And it is not the only way in which Ranatunga represents an inversion of cultural form. Indeed, the roots of Ranatunga's feisty nature and streetwise cricketing style cannot be understood without attending to Sri Lanka's social and political background.

The higher echelons of Sri Lankan (Ceylonese) cricket in the three decades after 1945 were dominated by cricketers emerging from the elite denominational schools of Colombo and Kandy as well as the premier government school, Royal College. These were westernised, English-speaking men. They profited from the social clout attached to a fluency in English and a particular upper-class lifestyle. A few of them were not above adopting airs and looking down on the vernacular-speaking yakoes (wild rustics) and "sarong-johnnies" - to use Ceylonese English jargon. The power of the English language in this era is indicated by the fact that Sinhala speakers subject to its force referred to it in the 1960s as the kaduva, or sword.

The westernised elites, however, were under challenge. The electoral overturn of 1956 that brought to power the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, a centre-left coalition led by the Bandaranaikes, has even been referred to, in exaggerated terms, as "the revolution of 1956", because it was a groundswell of the underprivileged seeking a place in the sun. It was also an expression of linguistic nationalism among the Sinhalese and included an explicit hostility to the primacy of English. But the transformations in the political order took time to permeate the cricketing arena. It was not till the late 1960's and in 1970's that talented cricketers from Ananda, Nalanda and Mahinda began to challenge the primacy of the Royal Thomains et al. These were also the elite schools but had originated in the Buddhist revival of the late nineteenth century, and their schoolboys were Sinhala-speakers partial to the directions arising from the transformations of 1956. One can consider Bandula Warnapura's appointment as captain of Sri Lanka in 1979 as an approximate marker of the moment when products of these schools gained primacy in the highest levels of Lankan cricket. Ranatunga, therefore, represents the second and third generations of players from this background.

The Ranatunga family was in the vanguard of this social change. Arjuna's father was a politician within the SLFP. Democratic politics in Sri Lanka has, for many decades now, been punctuated by intimidation and violence. It is said that the Ranatunga home was vandalised and a car burnt on one occasion - presumably by local supporters of the United National Party. In brief, young Ranatunga is familiar with the hurly-burly of politics.

None of which is to say that Ranatunga is abrasive in demeanour at all times. Indeed, in common with the majority of his cricketing peers in the Sri Lankan teams in recent decades, his interpersonal style is characterised by a measure of shyness. On social occasions he is courteous and restrained. An English journalist expressed amazement at the ease and patience shown by Ranatunga during the official function for the cricketers in Adelaide recently. On countless occasions his fork-with-morsel of food was arrested on its journey so that he could respond to requests for autographs and pictures.

Two gestures on Ranatunga's part after Sri Lanka had won the World Cup in March 1996 display his instincts for healing. On returning to Sri Lanka he made a point of taking the trophy to the home of Srima Dissanayake, the widow of Gamini Dissanayake, a former President of the Board of Cricket for Sri Lanka, who had been instrumental in securing full Test status for Sri Lanka at the ICC in 1981. As UNP leader, Dissanayake had been assassinated by a suicide bomber in 1994 as he addressed an election rally during his presidential campaign. Party lines are firmly demarcated in Sri Lanka, and the son of an SLFP politician displaying such reverence to the memory of an ideological enemy was remarkable.

The second gesture was caught on camera immediately after the triumph at Lahore. Referring implicity to the victory over Australia, after encountering so much strife in that land a few months previously, Ranatunga was asked whether "revenge was sweet". With a broad smile Ranatunga replied, "I would not use those words." Few Sri Lankans would have been so magnanimous. Many would have thought the defeat of the Australians, whose umpires had so maltreated Muttiah Muralitharan, and who had declined to visit Sri Lanka during the Cup because of a perceived threat to their safety, could not have befallen nicer guys.

The Australians, by contrast, have not kept their thoughts innermost. Mark Taylor, Shane Warne, Ian Healy and Mark Waugh have been blunt in expressing their dislike for Ranatunga, and the Australian media has often published similar sentiments; long before, in fact the incidents at Adelaide Oval on January 1999 blotted Ranatunga's copybook further.

In doing so, however, they have probably revealed as much about themselves as about Ranatunga. Consider, for example, the criticism of Ranatunga's physique, and his style of walking some singles. This vexes Australians sorely. When Ranatunga was runout in a one dayer after the Australian tour, the television round up programme Sports Tonight made footage of his wicket, its "Play of the Day", its gleeful presenter gloating, "We enjoyed that." Yet when challenged about it while acting as guest commentator during an England-Sri Lanka match at the SCG Steve Waugh struggled to explain why Australians found Ranatunga's habit so annoying. Tony Greig raised the issue in non-confrontational style when Ranatunga was batting and asked, "Does it matter (that he walks)?" Waugh could not clarify how it did except to affirm that it was irritating.

The irritation arises, perhaps, not from the original habit, but in its continuance when Ranatunga knows how annoying it proves. He has even claimed that his walking/running is designed to manufacture overthrows. This seems a post-hoc rationalisation. I suspect that any study of videotapes from the 1980s would show Ranatunga walking his runs occasionally, especially in the tropics. It is, as Sunil Gavaskar would say, a means of conserving energy so as to bat the better.

Other elements of the Australian chorus against Ranatunga may arise from cultural misunderstanding. One ritual complaint has been that Ranatunga and his cricketers seldom fraternise at the end of a day's play by attending the traditional post-match drinks at which the rigours of the day are laid to one side.

But, speaking broadly, there is no bar culture in Sri Lanka. Though the Sinhala speaking players of the 1970s and after, did develop a familiarity with Western lifestyles in the course of their cricketing travels, most are ill at ease in pubs and bars. This discomfort is compounded for some by a lack of fluency in English. If they do imbibe alcohol, the Sri Lankan players prefer to do so in the cosy environment of verandahs or drawing rooms.

It is also possible that a degree of cultural misunderstanding was at work during the contretemps at Adelaide Oval when Muralitharan was no-balled.

Many Australians considered Ranatunga's finger-wagging to be deeply offensive. However, finger-wagging is commonplace in Sri Lanka as a form of emphasis. It is particulalry pronounced in political speeches, but can punctuate any debate.

Among Sri Lankans it is perhaps a more conscious tool when one is chastisng someone for an unethical transgression. Emerson, the umpire even in the opinion of non-partisan commentators such as Botham and Roebuck, was transgressing, grandstanding. There is no doubt that Ranatunga deemed Emerson's action to be a transgresion that called for chastisement. His responses, of course, also consituted a transgression. In the heat of the moment, however, the Sri Lankan cricketers were in an impossible position - whatever their response they were going to be losers.

Even without this plea in mitigation, one might also, in the righteous response from so many, detect a hint of double standards. Wasn't the last Test captain to remonstrate so forcefully with an umpire an Englishman, Mike Gatting, who brought a Faisalabad match to a standstill by assailing Pakistani Shakoor Rana? And how many Australian teams have moaned and bitched about umpiring across the subcontinent? Perhaps there is the taproot of the antipathy that western cricketers, media representatives and spectators feel for Ranatunga; the way he demonstrates that what's good for the goose is also good for the gander.

Michael Roberts is on a quick trip to Sri Lanka, Tita Nathanielsz was able to persuade him to release this interesting article. We also acknowledge the courtesy extended by The Wisden Cricketers' Alamanack, Australia.

Courtesy Sunday Times (LK) Click to expand...

[Video] Duleep Mendis 74 Vs Australia, Kandy | 1983

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Scorecard (Courtesy Cricinfo)

*LRD Mendis c Hookes b Yardley 74 (92)

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[Video] Aravinda De Silva 134 (131) Vs Pakistan | 1997

Cricinfo: SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates, 7th APR 1997 - Aravinda De Silva struck a brilliant 134 off 131 balls to give world champions Sri Lanka a 51-run victory over Pakistan in the Singer Akai Cup here on Monday - and earned them a place in Friday's final.

The classy 31-year-old, who fell three short of his first Sharjah hundred against Pakistan on Friday, smashed four sixes and 11 boundaries after coming in at 11 for two in the sixth over.

De Silva's eighth one-day hundred lifted Sri Lanka to an imposing 251 for seven.

Scorecard

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[Video] Cricket | 250/0 in the 26th over...

Jayasuriya and Tharanga send the English bowlers on a leather hunt chasing 322 to win.

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[Video] Coca-Cola Champions Trophy - Final | India v Sri Lanka 2000 | 1st Session

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Sri Lanka defeated India by 254 in one of their most intimidating performances in the history of Sri Lankan cricket. The architect was, Sanath Jayasuriya, who rescued an innings that was dipping into the doldrums, with a breathtaking 189 from just 161 balls, the second equal highest score in the history of one-day international cricket.

Then, with India needing to score a mammoth 300 runs to win, the Sri Lanka bowlers ripped through the top order. Within 24 balls, both Tendulkar (5) and Ganguly (3) were left brooding in the dressing room. India's chances of winning had been squashed and any self-belief that had previously lingered had now vanished.

The Indian middle order capitulated. The only batsman to reach double figures was Robin Singh (11) and India were bowled out for just 54 runs. This was the lowest total ever in the history of one-day cricket in Sharjah and the third lowest in the world.

Chaminda Vaas finished with a career best 5 for 14 from his 9.3 overs. Both he and Zoysa bowled aggressively, perhaps fuelled by the inspirational batting of their captain. Everything they did appeared to bring dividends. Writes Charlie Austin for Cricinfo.

Scorecard

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[Video] The Sri Lankan brand of Cricket [2]

Sri Lanka's fan base has extended beyond the shores of Sri Lanka. Gone are the days when Sri Lankan Cricket was only followed by it's die hard fan base on the island. With Youtube and other online video hosts portraying the islanders talent, youngsters from various other nations are showing interest in Lanka cricket, not to mention the number of Americans following the Lions these days. My videos have a collective view count of over 1.5 Million, Youtube is taking Cricket to the the average American household, something even the ICC has failed to do.

The Lions' brand of cricket is the key to it's following. Sri Lanka have always been known for their aggressive and positive approach to Cricket, The Sri Lankan brand of Cricket.





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The Sri Lankan brand of Cricket [1]

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[Video] Pioneers of Cricket | Sanath jayasuriya

A documentary aired on Sky Sports during Sri Lanka's 2006 tour to England. Click to expand...

[Video] Sanath Jayasuriya 340 Vs India | August 1997

Jayasuriya dominated the Indian bowling, but he has also decimated them to the point that bowlers like Manoj Prabhakar and Rajesh Chauhan have been knocked out of the game and, Venkatesh Prasad and Anil Kumble are still licking the wounds inflicted on them when India last toured here four years ago.

When Jayasuriya is at the crease he defies all conventions of batsmanship that he has been more than a bowlers' nightmare.

Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Venkatesh Prasad (members of the present team) will vividly recall what Jayasuriya did to them at the R. Premadasa Stadium in August 1997 when he made the fourth highest score in Test cricket - 340, keeping them on the field for as long as 13 hours and 19 minutes.

After Nilesh Kulkarni became the first Indian bowler to take a wicket off his first ball in Test cricket, India had to wait 1,103 balls for the next wicket as Jayasuriya in liaison with Roshan Mahanama (225) shared Test cricket's highest (576) and longest (753 minutes) partnership. They became the first pair to bat throughout two uninterrupted days of Test cricket. Jayasuriya recalling that innings said that he ranked it along with the 199 he scored in the second Test of that series at the SSC, as the best of his seven Test centuries.

What makes Jayasuriya a threat to opposing bowlers is that there is no set pattern in his approach to batting. He loses no time in taking the initiative whether he hits the first ball of the innings for a six off a square cut, a cover drive which lands in the stands or a flick off his legs which flashes past the square-leg umpire. There is nothing transparent about his batting.

He is a master at pacing out his innings. A cautious half-century could just be the platform for him to launch an all out assault on the bowling later in the innings. One of the strong points of Jayasuriya's batting is his power. It is not just the new ball which flies off his bat, but the old ball is also smashed with equal ease.

How much Jayasuriya relishes the Indian bowling can be gauged by the fact that he holds his country's highest individual score in Test cricket (340) and one-day internationals (189) against the same opposition.

The 189 made in the Coca Cola final at Sharjah in November last year he ranks as his best one-day innings largely because of the circumstances under which he made it. Sri Lanka had lost four of their top batters for 116 runs, and with only Russel Arnold as the last recognised batsman, Jayasuriya had to pace his innings out in such a manner that his side finished with a match-winning total.

Writes Sa'adi Thawfeeq for The Ceylon Daily News | Monday, 13 August 2001 Click to expand...

[Video] Sanath Jayasuriya 213 Vs England | Oval Test Match 1998

"For nearly two days the England cricketers put the capacity crowd at the Surrey Oval to sleep. But on day three the brilliant batting display of the Sri Lankans - Sanath Jayasuriya awoke the English spectators and set alight the Oval. What a fantastic performance by Sri Lankans, quoted Michael Holding.

Jayasuriya reached his fifth century in his career in 124 balls and reached its epic 213 runs in 346 minutes facing 327 balls of which he dispatched 33 of them to the fence and one over the fence. Sanath Jayasuriya provided the fireworks, with technically skilled batting. Cutting and driving with authority, he trounced every bowler brought against him."

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[Video] Charitha Buddhika 5/67 Vs Zimbabwe | 2001

Buddhika represented Lanka for a brief period and as customary in Lanka cricket no one has heard of him since. Click to expand...

[Video] Aravinda De Silva 46*(37) Vs Australia | 1985

Aravinda came in to bat with 5 wickets down and Sri Lanka needing 52 win off 41 deliveries.

Signaling his intension early 'Mad Max' De Silva strolled down the pitch to Geoff Lawson and hit him straight back down the ground for six. Aravinda finished the match off with yet another six.

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[Video] The inswinging Yorker | Rumesh Ratnayake

From Sri Lanka's 1984/85 tour to Australia. Benson & Hedges World Series Cup. Click to expand...

[Video] Somchandra De Silva in action | 1984/85

Former Sri Lankan legspinner Somachandra de Silva was appointed recently as cricket advisor to the president of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapakse, to develop and spread the game in the country's war-hit north and north-eastern regions.

The move was part of the president's initiative to try and increase the representation of players of Tamil-speaking origin in the national team.

De Silva, who played 12 Tests for Sri Lanka and captained in two of them, was appointed on the basis of his experience in coaching school teams in Sri Lanka and England.

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[Video] Romesh Kaluwitharana 77 Vs Australia | World Series Cup 1995/96

A couple of months prior to the 1996 Wills World Cup, Sri Lanka found themselves on a tough tour to Australia. Heavy losses in the test series and the infamous boxing day test match where Darrell Hair no balled Murali for throwing had the entire team in very low spirits.

It was then that Ranatunga and Whatmore conjured up the attacking opening combination of Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana. The birth of a strategy that was to win Sri Lanka it's 1st World Cup.

Click here to see Kaluwitharana's first knock as opening batsman for Sri Lanka.

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[Video] Classic Catches | Hashan Tillekaratne | 1995/96

From Game 9 of the 1995/96 World Series Cup ODI match between Australia & Sri Lanka. Played at the MCG, Australia.

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[Video] Manjula Munasinghe 3/30 Vs Australia 1995-96 WSC

"Munasinghe was given a brief run in the one-day side and, despite not earning further representative honours, he did not let the team down. Munasinghe had the ability to bowl a consistent line and length and thus maintained an impressive economy rate in his limited matches. A constant figure in representative sides, he played numerous matches against touring sides before being selected for the 1995-96 tour of Australia. His best performance came at the MCG when he ran through the Australian top order taking 3 for 30, in the process setting up victory for Sri Lanka. Following the conclusion of the World Series he was not selected for the 1996 World Cup and drifted from the international scene." - Cricinfo.

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[Video] 1996 Wills World Cup Finals | Sri Lanka Vs Australia

"The Sri Lankans, coached by Dav Whatmore and captained by Arjuna Ranatunga, used Player of the Tournament Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana as opening batsmen to take advantage of the fielding restrictions during the first 15 overs of each innings. At a time when 50 or 60 runs in the first 15 overs was considered adequate, Sri Lanka scored 117 runs in those overs against India, 123 against Kenya, 121 against England in the quarter-final and 86 against India in the semi-final. Against Kenya, Sri Lanka made 398 for 5, a