CricInfo Home
News Home

NEWS FOCUS
Rsa in Pak
NZ in India
Zim in Aus

Domestic
Other Series

Northampton, May 8 - Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga fired another salvo at his England counterpart Alec Stewart, five days before they meet for the opening match of the World Cup at Lord's when he questioned whether Stewart knew anything about etiquette.

Ranatunga interviewed by The Evening Standard said under the headline: 'Ranatunga bites back': ``We can't live in glass houses and throw stones, but that's what the England captain has done. We have a good cassette of that match (Sri Lanka v England at Adelaide) in the Sri Lanka Board and if it comes out, it's really bad on England.

``On it you see the behaviour of the England captain and I think before he talks about others, he should look at the cassette, at the way he behaved, the things he said and did. I don't know whether he (Stewart) knows about the thing called etiquette in cricket. I'm so lucky that I was taught those things when I was young.

``Normally, it's the winning side who goes to the losing side's dressing room to shake hands, not the other way round, after the game. That's what we did when we won in Australia; the others didn't''.

Ranatunga further said: ``Ten years ago, these incidents never happened because nobody worried about us. Now they do worry, they look for things to get our minds off the job. People would say 'what a friendly country, super bunch of players, very hospitable' but it wasn't getting us anywhere. I got fed up coming back from tours with nothing. I didn't want us to be sparring partners, but winners''.

Ranatunga has been inspirational in turning Sri Lanka from an ordinary bunch of beginners into champions and said, problems of this nature only ``bond us together and help make our spirit unbreakable''.

``I fight for our rights, for our country. I play my cricket hard and if I think we are being wronged, I'm not going to bury my head and forget it. I can't change, that's been my way for 18 years,'' said Ranatunga, who has a six-match ban hanging over his head after his confrontation with umpire Ross Emerson in Adelaide early this year.

Focus on Murali

Meanwhile, the few Sri Lankans and Northamptonshire fans who turned up at Wantage Road on Friday in expectation of seeing a few fireworks from Sanath Jayasuriya and his colleagues were forced to return home disappointed after the dreaded English weather washed out all their hopes with a downpour which the '99 World Cup can do without.

With not much on display of Sri Lanka's much vaunted batting line-up which won them the last World Cup, the British press concentrated their energies on the bowling of Muthiah Muralitharan.

The Sri Lankan off-spinner coming for his first bowl in an important match after undergoing surgery in his bowling arm early this year, impressed everyone with his tight control. He put the brakes on with a tight spell that produced a miserly 21 runs from 10 overs (2 maidens) specially at a time when things were not looking too good for the world champions with the free-hitting Mal Loye and Russell Warren threatening to take the bowling apart with a second wicket stand of 81.

Muralitharan's dismissal of David Sales for 10, signalled a sharp decline in the county's fortunes as they lost their last eight wickets for 67 runs in 16 overs.

Loye made 73 off 100 balls which included two sixes off Chandika Hathurusingha and Warren, 44. The rest of the batting was consumed by Sri Lanka's bowlers who struck to a steady line and length.

``The off-spinner bemused and trussed up the Northamptonshire county professionals, which must have been a relief to Arjuna Rantunga and his Sri Lanka team, because Muralitharan, now free of no-balling suspicion, seems certain to be a crucial element in Sri Lanka's defence of the World Cup,'' said The Daily Telegraph.

The Independent said: ``The Northants batsmen certainly could not read Muralitharan''.

Erik Upashantha, a late replacement for Chaminda Vaas, who was down with 'flu impressed one and all with figures of 3 for 33 off nine overs. Pramodya Wickremasinghe, the senior fast bowler in the side disappointed. Playing his first game after recovering from 'flu, he was wayward and he also dropped a simple catch, which was the only black mark on a highly satisfying day for Sri Lanka.