File Photo: Arjuna Ranatunga (TOI Photo)
MUMBAI: Sri Lanka’s celebrated 1996 World Cup winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga is in Mumbai these days, on a ‘business visit. On Saturday, the 62-year-old Lankan great addressed a gathering of budding cricketers and their parents, of the Payyade Sports Club in Kandivli. The former left-hander, who scored 5105 runs in 93 Tests, asserted that it was important to teach today’s young cricketers about the value of playing for the country, rather than only focus on raking in moolah by playing in cash-rich franchise T20 leagues.
Ranatunga arrived in the city on Friday with his close friend and businessman Venkatesh K Rao. “I had the privilege of having a good session with young cricketers of Mumbai yesterday. I spoke to them about some of the cricketing values which are missing today. I told them about the value of technique, something that you could see in my playing time with the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Mohammed Azharuddin, Sourav Ganguly and other top Indian batters,” Ranatunga told TOI on Sunday.
“It was a very good session, which lasted for 90 minutes. Because today, a cricketer has to be intelligent as well, he told the cricketers that they should focus on education too.
I will always cherish his words that day,” Ranatunga said. He also told the kids to focus on studies. He emphasized to the aspiring cricketers that studies and parents’ respect is very important,” Payyade Sports Club president and former MCA joint secretary PV Shetty told Mumbai Mirror. He is keen to establish a cricket academy in Mumbai in collaboration with me,” Shetty said.
“It’s important to bring these kids on the right track. They are looking at the financial benefits, rather than taking pride in wearing the cap and jersey of your national team. “I enjoyed talking to the cricketers, they listened to me very attentively. We were lucky that growing up, we had our role models in Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath.When we went to Pakistan, we saw some fine cricketing brains like Imran Khan, Javed Miandad and Abdul Qadir. When I played a Test for the first time in India, in Chennai, Gavaskar took time out for us and spoke to us in our dressing room after the match. He was talking about cricket and how to respect parents and how to leave the house with the blessing of your parents. “We wanted him to speak to the boys at the ground, but it was raining. So, he spoke to the young cricketers of our club at my hotel in Kandivali.
Today’s cricketers look to play in the franchise leagues, rather than playing for their country.