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Ranatunga announces retirement

Arjuna Ranatunga, Sri Lanka's most capped Test player, will retire from international cricket after the current series against South Africa. The former captain made the announcement before the start of play in the first Test on Thursday.

The 37-year old soutpaw is associated with the emergence of a new political party called the Sinhala Urumaya, which was launched only a few months ago. He has so far denied that he intends to be a candidate in the general elections, which are due in a few months from now.

There was a lot of speculation about the future of Sri Lanka's most successful captain in recent weeks. This despite the fact that he scored a couple of half-centuries in the Galle Test match against Pakistan in the recently concluded series.

Ranatunga is the man credited for the transformation of the Lankans from the underdogs to World champions in 1996. It was under his astute captaincy that Lanka lifted the World Cup and emerged as a world class outfit.

Ranatunga is also the only player to have played in the first Test Sri Lanka played way back in 1982 and also in the centenary Test this year.

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