Sri Lanka’s 1996 World Cup Hero Arjuna Ranatunga Faces Arrest In Oil Deal Corruption Case

Sri Lankan authorities have told a Colombo court they plan to detain former national cricket captain and ex‑petroleum minister Arjuna Ranatunga on corruption charges tied to oil purchases made during his time in office. Investigators allege that Ranatunga and his brother Dhammika sidestepped the usual tender process for long‑term fuel contracts and instead authorised a series of higher‑priced spot buys, saddling the state with losses put at 800 million Sri Lankan rupees — roughly Rs 23.5 crore — from 27 transactions.

The anti‑graft commission informed the magistrate that Arjuna Ranatunga is currently overseas and will be taken into custody when he returns to the country. His elder brother Dhammika, who headed the state‑run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation at the time of the deals, was arrested on Monday, produced before court, released on bail and placed under a travel ban because he holds both Sri Lankan and US citizenship. The court has fixed the next hearing in the case for March 13.

Ranatunga, now 62, is one of Sri Lanka’s most celebrated sports figures, remembered for leading the team to its first and only Cricket World Cup title in 1996 with a famous victory over Australia. The investigation into the oil contracts forms part of a broader anti‑corruption campaign launched by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who swept to power promising to tackle entrenched graft in politics and state enterprises.

The Ranatunga family faces multiple cases under this drive. Another brother, former tourism minister Prasanna Ranatunga, was arrested last month in a separate insurance‑fraud probe that is still before the courts. He had already been found guilty in 2022 of extorting money from a businessman and is currently serving a two‑year prison sentence that has been suspended, leaving him free but under legal sanction while the new charges move forward.