Arjuna, Time to return to cricket 

by Rex Clementine

On the day Arjuna Ranatunga retired from cricket – August 10, 2000, there was a media briefing at the old Oberoi Hotel, now Cinnamon Grand. There was an offer for him to join Sri Lanka Cricket as one of the Directors.  But, at the same time then President Chandrika Kumaratunga requested him to join politics.  He chose the latter, going in the footsteps of his father Reggie Ranatunga, a stalwart of Sri Lanka Freedom Party. A few months later at the General Elections that was held, he was elected to Parliament from Colombo District winning handsomely.

Since then, he has won four General Elections from three different districts and three different parties.  This time, with the United National Party suffering an electoral debacle, Arjuna was one of the casualties. Every cloud has a silver lining and the political defeat could be a blessing in disguise as it presents Arjuna an opportunity to get involved full time with the game of cricket.

The restructured cricket board in 2000 had four Directors – Duleep Mendis as Director Cricket Operations, Jerome Jayaratne as Director Coaching, Jayantha Kudahetty as Director Marketing and K.T. Francis as Director Umpiring. International cricket was to come directly under Arjuna’s purview. Eventually, the spot was never filled.

Arjuna did have brief stints at SLC. From 2003 to 2005 he was Chairman of Cricket Committee, the advisory arm to the Executive Committee of the board and in 2008 he headed the board. But on both occasions, he was heavily involved in politics and his full focus wasn’t on cricket. He has also had a few cracks in SLC elections but has been unable to attract cricket’s stakeholders.

Away from politics, it’s an ideal opportunity for Arjuna to get involved with the game again and focus fully on development of the game. Be it as Chairman of Selectors, Manager of the national cricket team or even as coach of the ‘A’ team, Arjuna has much to offer and the game will certainly benefit with his involvement.

There is something unique about the way people like Duleep Mendis, Anura Tennekoon and Arjuna read the game of cricket. They are quick to spot special talents as well.

Arjuna was SLC Chairman in 2008 when India toured the island and with several requests coming his way from Indian journalists for interviews, he decided to address a media briefing. It happened at SSC and after the briefing there was an interaction. Arjuna kept on asking the visiting journalists the whereabouts of a certain player by the name of Rohit Sharma!

Arjuna went onto say that he had seen him during the Under-19 World Cup and that Sharma had a special talent.  He also told them that Sharma is going to break lots of records if he keeps his head clear of distractions. Now, most of the journalists from India had no clue about Rohit Sharma at that stage. But soon they started learning what impact he can make. That is Arjuna. He sees things differently and he is stubborn to hold onto those ideas no matter the consequences. It is time for him to take   fresh guard at SLC or his beloved SSC.