Warrant issued for the arrest of Arjuna Ranatunga

The reputation of Sri Lanka's greatest cricket son, Arjuna Ranatunga, was in tatters last night as a Sri Lankan court ordered the former Sri Lankan captain be arrested for being involved in the assault of ten students.

Maradana Police Chief Inspector, L.Edirisinghe, said yesterday that they would arrest Arjuna Ranatunga upon his return from Kenya where he has been playing in an international charity match.

His brother, Prasanna Ranatunga, who is a high-ranking politician, was also issued with an arrest warrant. According to a report in the Government sponsored Daily News newspaper Prasanna Ranatunga has agreed to surrender himself to the police today.

Asoka College in Colombo has remained closed since the incident took place last Friday as angry students, teachers and parents have taken to the streets in protest at the alleged assault, which left four students in hospital. One student remains in a serious condition.

The incident occurred when students tried to collect a cricket ball that had been hit into the garden of Ranatunga's mother's residence. According to the students of Asoka College they were then threatened. They then escaped only to be dragged back into the garden by armed assailants and brutally assaulted.

Prassana Ranatunga told the Daily Mirror yesterday: "Last Friday the ball fell on our side. Neither Arjuna nor I was home at the time. There is a dumb domestic helping in our house. The students had asked for the ball from this domestic. But he had not understood. Although they had asked for the ball several times he had not responded. Then the boys have jumped on our side and hit the domestic with the stick. He had hit the boys in return.

"My mother had come out at this stage and had asked the the boys to not harass the innocent man. Then the boys had scolded my mother in indecent language. People who were in the house had then assaulted the boys as they could not listen to those words."

Ranatunga said: "A group of people are using this incident to sling mud at us. What people read is only one side of the story." However, he added: "I accept that assaulting is incorrect, but is it correct to scold a mother in filth? Could you stomach it? Most children are no longer children. Is it correct to speak like vagabonds?"

There has so far been no confirmation from the Colombo police that Arjuna Ranatunga and his brother were directly involved in the assault. There were, however, a large number of witnesses who claim that the Ranatungas were directly involved in the assault.