Why was Ranatunga Sacked?

He led the Sri Lankan team with single minded focus. Undeterred by criticism personally, Arjuna Ranatunga stood by the team in their darkest hour and witnessed the glory of the sweat and toil that brought home the World Cup of 1996. But now he has been infamously overthrown by the sports minister. What did go wrong?

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Ranatunga did not see ill intent behind allowing ICL affiliated players including Marvan Atapattu back into a domestic tournament despite an ICC/BCCI diktat that clearly states that players affiliated to the rebel Twenty20 league cannot be a part of the official structure of respective boards. It was a move not only to utilize the worth of the players but also, to clearly show that Sri Lankan cricket would not cower to the BCCI who held no direct control on how other boards decided to conduct their business.

Arjuna Ranatunga, it appears, was always at loggerheads contrary to his suggestions otherwise. One of the most prominent amongst these seemed his determined attempt to keep India, read BCCI, from controlling the Sri Lankan cricket itinerary. It meant scheduling a one day series against Pakistan when the inaugural IPL was scheduled. He went further to actually deal with the ECB to ensure that Sri Lanka would tour in the English summer when the IPL’s second season is scheduled for April-May in 2009. This was against the wishes of the players, most of whom who were contracted for the IPL. His move was eventually overturned by the sports ministry that chose to side with the players. It was apparent Ranatunga was not fond of “instant noodles” (the term he coined for the IPL).

The reason the sports minister, Gamini Lokuge, decided to take the extreme step of dissolving the interim committee of Sri Lanka Cricket was brought on by the decision by the Ranatunga-led committee to sack sixteen of the SLC employees. Apparently it was done without the knowledge of the ministry and hence, warranted a move of this nature.

However, Ranatunga stands by his decision. “I only wanted to make the SLC a clean place and serve cricketers. I did not go there to do any politics.”