Fourteen years after leading the islanders to their greatest triumph, Arjuna Ranatunga is quite a bitter man now!
By Abhideep Das
He has always been a straight talker. Never one to hide his emotions, former Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga said the 1996 World Cup win changed Sri Lankan for the good, but only just.
Attending the ESPN-STAR Sports’ organized World Cup promotional event in New Delhi, Ranatunga said, “I think that (World Cup win) is the best thing that happened to the country. But on the other side, it is also was the worst thing that happened since a lot of unwanted people got into cricket administration after that.”
Continuing in the same vein, the 47-year-old ex-chairman of the Lankan Board continued, “Till 1996, we struggled to find proper administrators. But after that triumph, all corrupt and unwanted guys started getting into the Board and started messing up. It is even happening now.”
Recalling some of the mind games he played to unnerve the opposition during that memorable World Cup winning campaign, Ranatunga said, “The Australians panicked after I mentioned in a press conference that the Waugh brothers and Shane Warne are highly overrated cricketers. While the Australians were busy talking about this, we just concentrated on playing cricket. Beating India in India in the group game gave us the self-belief that we can go all the way.”
Terming India and Sri Lanka as joint-favourites for the 2011 World Cup, Ranatunga said India need to be extra-careful since they are playing most of their matches at home in front of an expectant crowd.
“India can panic in front of their home-crowd. I have seen it happening during my time when a lot of top Indian cricketers panicked while playing in front of huge crowds and lost the game,” he said.
India will be playing all their group matches at home barring the World Cup opener against Bangladesh at Dhaka.
Ranatunga also had a word of caution for the Lankan team. “With all the three World Cup venues in Sri Lanka being new ones, not much cricket has been played there. These venues are new for the Lankan team as well.”
He added, “I am also a little concerned about the Sri Lankan middle order. But we do have a lot of match-winning bowlers.”
Straight from the heart, as usual!
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