Ranatunga blasts selectors for spilt captaincy

Arjuna Ranatunga, Sri Lanka's former captain, has bemoaned the decision to appoint two separate captains for Test and one-day cricket in a recent interview with the Daily Mirror.

Ranatunga also criticised the selectors for not consulting Marvan Atapattu, the current one-day captain, who they believed would be overburdened by the responsibility of handling both jobs at the outset.

"I vehemently object to having two captains for the national team," said Ranatunga. "If Marvan (Atapattu) was not good enough for the (Test) captaincy then they should have handed it to someone who could have handled both. I think the selectors should have consulted Marvan on the issue."

"If you look at the last two one-day international championships (in Sharjah and Dambulla), where we failed to make it to the final, the problem was not the captaincy issue but the fact they were not given a proper team. Avishka Gunawaradene, Romesh Kaluwitharana and even Upul Chandana, who made useful contributions in the Caribbean, were not given the nod when they were in good touch."

Ranatunga doesn't doubt the captaincy skills of his former colleague, Hashan Tillakaratne, but he believes that he should have been given a chance earlier instead of Sanath Jayasuriya, who was appointed after Ranatunga's sacking. "I don't say that Hashan is not fit for the captaincy," he says. "He should have been made captain in 1999."

Ranatunga only recently lost the race for the cricket board presidency, winning just seven votes compared to the 121 clinched by Thilanga Sumathipala. But Ranatunga rubbishes the suggestion that his candidacy was a mistake.

"Actually, I am very happy with the way things went," he claimed. "I came forward to prove a point, which many people did not want to accept. But the man on the street understood. I chose to bell the cat, which in future will be an example to BCCSL aspirants."

"Experience has shown how an organized group is influencing the BCCSL affairs. It culminated on June 6 when the election was held. I don't think with this situation and single good cricketer or administrator would want to come forward."

"The situation is such that even if you led Sri Lanka to five world crowns, you cannot win the BCCSL election. It is very hard to beat them. If Ranil Wickremasinghe, the Prime Minister, had contested, he would have lost too."

Defiant to the end, Ranatunga pledged to continue his battle. "I think the general public is aware of the corrupted system and I will continue to expose these things in the future as well."