Ranatunga in poor light

EVERYONE respects former captain Arjuna Ranatunga for his contribution to Sri Lanka cricket. Fearless and a leader of men he bestrode the cricket world for a decade from 1989. He was a captain with a cause and he made things happen.

The culmination of his captaincy was winning the World Cup in 1996 for which he will be remembered until Sri Lanka does it again some time in the future.

When Ranatunga speaks everyone listens. Such is the magnetic personality that he built up during his tenure as captain. He not only won many matches for his country but also defended his players to the hilt.

The Ross Emerson-Muralitharan throwing incident at Adelaide in 1999 was one of the few cases where he put his captaincy on the line to save his key bowler from being hounded by an umpire who was not fit to stand in the match.

As much as he is respected, Ranatunga also has his weaknesses and his impudence and the choice of words he tends to use has seen him brush with cricket authorities quite often.

His latest comment predicting a 7-0 bashing for Sri Lanka in the on-going seven-match one-day international series against India must have come like a rude shock to lovers of the game. It's a cardinal rule not to kick a man when he is down.

By making such a prediction that is what Ranatunga has done to Marvan Atapattu and his boys. His prediction may turn out to be right in the end. But that is a different story.

Sri Lanka maybe 0-4 down and lost the chance of making a comeback in the one-day series, but instead of giving words of encouragement to lift the team from its present predicament, Ranatunga's words will only demoralise the team further.

Atapattu who happens to be his brother-in-law expressed surprise at the Ten Sports interview that such remarks had been made against his team by a man of stature as Ranatunga under whose captaincy he had played a large part of his cricket.

Ranatunga wrote in his column: "This Indian side can only be subdued by 11 charged and committed men, marauding like a hungry pack of wolves. Otherwise, I suspect a 7-0 drubbing, so much has Sri Lanka fallen behind in the present series."

Further, Ranatunga stated that 'poor tactics and lack of commitment by Marvan Atapattu's men had placed the world's second ranked side in a precarious position'. "I am disappointed with a few of our tactics. The bowling and fielding have been unimaginative and routine."

Instead of criticising the team's performance wholesale, as a past captain Ranatunga should be offering words of advice and extending a helping hand to Atapattu.

During his tenure as captain hasn't Ranatunga experienced such defeats? Has he forgotten the 3-0 bashing his team experienced in India in 1993-94 when all three Tests were lost by an innings and well inside four days, which raised suspicion whether the matches were lost on betting?

Interim not the answer

Did not Ranatunga play a part in the appointment of the present interim body where he is now the chairman of the cricket committee? The Indian tour result is the worst suffered by a national team during an interim administration.

The results and the lack of back up players to sustain the national team clearly implies that interim is not the answer to the development and progress of cricket or for that matter any sport.

This cricket politicking has gone too far and has got to stop. One hopes the Minister of Sport realizes the damage he has done to the future of the game by appointing people, some of whom have not even held a bat in their hands and have no knowledge of the game whatsoever to interim bodies to suit the whims and fancies of certain individuals.

If Sri Lanka cricket is to get back on the right track it must be allowed to follow the electoral process where the provinces, clubs, associations can have a big say. Interim is not the answer for the future. Over the years they have proved to be the biggest setback to Sri Lanka cricket.