Arjuna Ranatunga, Sri Lanka’s 1996 World Cup winner, is set to be arrested on corruption charges related to his time as petroleum minister, a court was informed on Monday. Ranatunga and his brother Dhammika Ranatunga have been accused of altering the process for granting long-term oil procurement contracts and making spot purchases at a greater cost.
According to the AFP report, the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption estimates that the state lost about 800 million rupees, or $5 million USD, as a result of 27 purchases. It is important to note that the agreements were reached in 2017.
The commission has already informed Colombo Magistrate Asanga Bodaragama that Arjuna is abroad and will be detained upon his return to the country.
Ranatunga's elder brother, Dhammika, the then-chairman of the state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, has already been arrested. He was brought into custody on Monday but later freed on bail.
The magistrate issued a travel ban on Dhammika. Arjuna Ranatunga's brother holds dual citizenship in Sri Lanka and the United States. According to AFP, the next hearing is slated for March 13, 2026.
The ongoing investigation against Ranatunga and his brother is part of the crackdown by the current government that was formed in 2024. When President Anura Kumara Dissanayake's government took office, it promised to put a stop to widespread corruption.
Earlier, Prasanna, Ranatunga's brother and former tourism minister, was detained in connection with an insurance fraud case. The case is still underway; however, he was previously convicted in June 2022 of extorting money from a businessman.
Arjuna Ranatunga had made his Sri Lanka debut in 1982 and went on to play 93 Tests and 269 ODIs, scoring more than 10,000 runs across the two formats. Under his captaincy, Sri Lanka also won a Test series in England for the first time.
His biggest achievement was winning the 1996 World Cup held in India and Pakistan. In June 2000, he participated in Sri Lanka's 100th Test match, becoming the first player to have been in both his country's first and hundredth Tests. In 2001, he retired from Test cricket.
