The Sri Lanka Cricket's executive committee have taken legal action against the country's former World Cup-winning skipper Arjuna Ranatunga. The SLC has sent Letters of Demand (LOD) of LKR 2 billion (INR 43.4 crore approx) for "loss of reputation".
The SLC administrators stated that the decision was taken after "extensively deliberating" on a "false, derogatory and distorted statement" made by Arjuna during a recent media interview.
The Statement also mentioned that Arjuna “has spoken with malicious intent, damaging the goodwill and reputation of the SLC and have deliberately made public comments by making false and defamatory accusations against the Executive Committee of Sri Lanka Cricket."
The 58-year-old Arjuna, who is the newly-appointed chairman of the National Sports Council led Sri Lanka in the 1996 edition of the World Cup. Sri Lanka won the title after defeating Australia by seven wickets in the final at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, Pakistan.
He also led Sri Lanka in the 1997 Asia Cup, when the country lifted the trophy after defeating India in the final. It was Sri Lanka's 2nd Asia Cup title which came after a gap of 11 years after 1986.
Under his captaincy, Sri Lanka secured their first ever historic Test victory on English soil against England which happened to be in 1998.
In his career, Arjuna has scored 7456 runs in 269 ODIs with four centuries, 49 fifties and a high score of 131. He made his Test debut at the age of 18 in Sri Lanka's inaugural Test match and is his country's first cricketer to score a fifty in Test. In the 93 Test matches that he played during his career, he scored 5105 runs, with a high score of 135 including four hundreds and 38 half-centuries.
