Thursday 13th, January 2011 15

The heated exchanges between and are well docu- mented. Here Ranatunga hits one hard back at Warne during the 1996 World Cup final in . Warne failed to pick up a wicket in the final, as won by seven wickets.

BY REX CLEMENTINE Adelaide, his home town, to watch the final day’s Ranatunga was prepared to fight fire with fire. won in 1996 and as far as I am concerned, the play. I knew what the result was going to be. In my “Before the start of the 1996 World Cup final, I problems stem from their captain. Ranatunga reply, I said that at the end of the match I did not made a statement that the Waugh brothers and might be a shrewd, experienced leader, but his bat- e came here with Backpacks, you with want to be the one to tell him that Australia had Shane Warne are over-rated cricketers. The ploy ting is not what it was and he is terrible in the Ball and Chain’, the Barmy Army’s `won by a Hair,. Accordingly, I went back home, as worked as it didn’t go down well with the Aussies field,” Warne went on to write before admitting ‘Wrecent mock on the Australian support- planned, to maintain the good relations that we and they were speaking a lot about it during the “There is plenty of animosity between Arjuna and ers during England’s successful Ashes campaign, a have with Australia.” game as we focused on the game,” Ranatunga said myself. I don’t like him and I’m not in a club of tongue in cheek reminder to the locals that There were quite a few exchanges as well recently. one.” Australia used to be a British colony where the between the players of both teams. Arjuna Ian Chappell, the no-nonsense former Aussie After Sri Lanka’s first match of the tourna- convicts were exiled to. Ranatunga had been mercilessly sledged when the skipper in a recent interview narrated an incident ment, Ranatunga was asked for a comment at the Even the in 1996 saw several Sri Lankans were in Australia two months prior to which took place after the toss during the Lahore post match media briefing. “It shows more about similar heated than jovial attacks with the the World Cup. After the Sri Lankan captain final. Shane Warne and the Australian culture,” he said. exchanges going beyond players and dragging Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers into the debate. ‘Aussie PM is Keating “There was a storm of protest in Aussies are Cheating’ Australia after I said ‘shopping is This was a banner that was put up by a specta- tor during the 1996 Cricket World Cup and could for sissies’, Kadirgamar would have been the reaction to Australia’s refusal to play their World Cup group game in . later recall. A TV interviewer asked A month before the tournament, a bomb had me whether I had ever played gone off in Colombo and citing security concerns, the Australians wanted their game shifted from Sri cricket... My friend the Australian Lanka. The Sri Lankan government tried to do lot of Foreign Minister was drawn into convincing and there was even a promise to pro- the fray and phoned me. We decid- vide players security parallel to ones provided to heads of state. ed to cool things down. A combined Despite all the pledges, the Australians were holding their own and Shane Warne in particular / team came to was making statements that were sensitive. His Colombo at very short notice to comment that a bomb might go off in Colombo while he was shopping was the last straw and Sri play an exhibition match in place of Lanka’s Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar the Australian match. Against hit back saying ‘Shopping is for Sissies’. With that comment all hell broke loose, but Kadirgamar, strong security advice, I went on to whose oratory skills were as good as any of his contemporaries world over would go onto turn the the field to greet and thank our cricket world’s sympathy towards Sri Lanka. friends from India and Pakistan. “There was a storm of protest in Australia after I said ‘shopping is for sissies’, Kadirgamar When the whole episode was over I would later recall. A TV interviewer asked me whether I had ever played cricket. I said I had sent a bouquet of flowers to my played before he was born - without helmets and Australian counterpart. Flowers thigh guards, on matting wickets that were full of Part 8 holes and stones and I had my share of broken are also for sissies.” bones to show it. My friend the Australian Foreign Minister was drawn into the fray and phoned me. We decided to cool things down. A com- bined “Before the match, Ravi (Shastri) had done an “We come from 2,500 years of culture and we all India/Pakistan interview with Arjuna and I was to do one with know where they come from,” he added. team came to (Shane) Warney.” The International Cricket Council by this Colombo at very “The Australians were practising when Arjuna stage had fined Warne for bringing the game into short notice to play said that Warney was a media myth, and word got disrepute and when the media pressed Ranatunga an exhibition match around. When Warney came running to me saying, to explain his comments about Australian culture, in place of the ‘What’s that fat b**t**d said now?’ I thought to he was cautious, “I will tell you when I retire,” Australian match. It myself, ‘This is very smart’. Ranatunga has them Ranatunga added. was a magnificent worried about him rather than the other way Warne, after retiring published a book ‘Shane gesture of South around.” Warne’s Century’. He detailed the finest 100 crick- Asian solidarity.” “Quite clearly, Ranatunga had managed to get eters during his time and Ranatunga was picked “Against strong under the Australians’ skin. I thought Arjuna was as well. “I tried all the ways to leave him out,” he security advice I a very smart captain,” continued Chappell. went on to say in the book. went on to the field to “Complaints from Australia about him used to “He doesn’t play the game in the right spirit. greet and thank our make me chuckle ... if you hand it out, it’s going to He told the umpire where he could stand, ordered friends from India come back. Arjuna quite liked it when guys had a his players off the field, got a runner on at least and Pakistan. When go at him.” three or four occasions when there was nothing the whole episode was The animosity between Ranatunga and Warne wrong with him,” Warne added. over I sent a bouquet that started ahead of the World Cup would go on The former Australian vice-captain went on of flowers to my requested for a runner during a One-Day until the next World Cup and even beyond. to remark that Ranatunga would be rubbing one Australian counter- International in Sydney, wicket keeper Ian Healy Days before Sri Lanka arrived in England for leg, but by the time the physio came back out, it part. Flowers are also for sissies,” Kadirgamar con- was heard on the stump microphone saying, “You the defence of their title in 1999, Shane Warne in had switched to the other! tinued. don’t get a runner for being an overweight, unfit, his column in the ‘London Times’ reopened the “He milked the system, but having said that, “While our team was in Australia, I paid an fat c*nt!” old wound when he said, “Frankly, Sri Lanka — he was a bloody good player – and it annoyed me official visit to Australia. My friend the Australian Having withstood years of abuse, the Sri and the game overall - would be better off without to put him in! And he gave Sri Lanka a winning Foreign Minister during the course of a dinner Lankans had decided that they would give the Arjuna.” culture, which they’ve built on,” Warne further speech invited me to go with him the next day to Australians a taste of their own medicine and “Sri Lanka are not as powerful as the side that remarked.