Organised effort, says Arjuna

Organised effort, says Arjuna
Press Trust of India

Colombo: Sri Lankan cricketing icon Arjuna Ranatunga has been reprimanded by a judge over allegations he assaulted a group of students, even as the former captain accused rivals in the game’s establishment of plotting to defame him by implicating him in the incident.

“This is an organised effort. They want to spoil my image while the England cricket team is playing here,” Ranatunga, who was released on bail after he surrendered before a magistrate yesterday, told a private television channel.“There is somebody who is scared that I might become the president of the International Cricket Council after my retirement,” said Ranatunga, who led his country to glory by winning the World Cup in 1996.

“You are also a player. It is a bad example when famous men like you do such things,” magistrate Kusala Sarojini Weerawardena told him while releasing him on bail, taking into account, his promptness in surrendering to the court as soon as he returned from Kenya.