Arjuna Ranatunga.
Credit: Special Arrangement
As such, a person in the position of executing national responsibilities doesn’t always have the luxury of free speech. Arjuna Ranatunga didn’t care for these imposed restrictions when he was a player, a captain and an administrator for Sri Lanka.
Now that he has little or no connection with cricket he is even more uninhibited. While it’s refreshing, it does evoke a sense of misplaced guilt for we live in the age of political correctness. Ranatunga doesn’t care about that either.
At his office in Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte (some eight kilometres from the R Premadasa stadium), he looks almost unrecognisable from the only image he evokes - that of a 1996 World Cup winner - but his penchant for the truth is as vibrant as ever.
This is why when the topic of Asia Cup scheduling came about, he lashed at the International Cricket Council, the Asian Cricket Council and whoever else is in the business of cricket with veracity of a rare kind.
“The ICC is a toothless tiger,” he said on Friday. “They act in a very unprofessional way. They should be the ones protecting cricket. Ultimately, cricket should be controlled by the ICC, not by a country or an individual.”
“You take the Asia Cup for instance: you have rules before the tournament, but before that one game (India v Pakistan), they changed the rules. Where is ACC? Where is ICC? I won’t be surprised if they do something similar halfway through the World Cup for an India-Pakistan game, and the ICC will keep their mouth shut and say ‘ok, ok, do it’.”
The Sri Lankan leg of the Asia Cup has seen rain affect every single contest so far. While the league games in Pallekele were still bearable, there was little or no hope of cricket in Colombo without rain. Despite an 80 per cent chance of rain on nearly every day, the organisers insisted on staying put in Colombo.
And, as a backup to ensure that the marquee match between India and Sri Lanka would stand a better chance of happening, the ACC announced that a reserve day would be added. The only other game in the tournament with a reserve day is the final.
"Why did they play in Colombo when you have places like Hambantota? It doesn’t rain in Hambantota. That particular ground was built for us to play cricket during the rainy season. But you come to Colombo to play Asia Cup? What is the ACC doing?” he asked without needing an answer.
“India is powerful now, and that’s perfectly alright, but if the ICC doesn't put its foot down there is a disaster waiting to happen. In my days with the ICC (as a director) I worked with quality people. Of course, we had to fight with the England and Australia lobby a lot but we had to do it. We fought for rights.”
“The problem is countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh just agree with anything India or Pakistan propose,” he added.
Ranatunga was referring to the fact that Sri Lanka Cricket and the Bangladesh Cricket Board had agreed to allow a rest day for the India-Pakistan game.
“Why do they do this? Why do the other countries allow that to happen? It’s because the BCCI is powerful, or one particular person is powerful. No, it can't happen like that. This is where I feel very, very uncomfortable and very sad,” said the
“Have you heard one player talk about this last-minute rule change? No. That’s because they don't want to miss the buck either. Simple as that.”