Player of the Month

July 1997: Arjuna Ranatunga

Highlights of Ranatunga's month:
131* from 152 balls, Sri Lanka v India, July 18
Scorecard

62 from 66, Sri Lanka v India, Asia Cup Final, July 26
Scorecard | Match report.

272 runs at 131.00 in the Asia Cup - the most runs in the series.

Related items on CricInfo:

CricInfo's player profile of Arjuna Ranatunga

Arjuna Ranatunga the Great! - E.Rodrigopulle, July 19.

Related Player of the Month pages:

Who missed out? The good, the bad and the ugly of July.

The selection process for Players of the Month

Previous Players of the Month
Arjuna Ranatunga Our Player of the Month for July is the most experienced active player in world cricket, having first appeared for his country at the age of nineteen some fifteen years ago. He has risen to take the leadership role his country, and in that role to lead his team to unexpected success in the limited-over game, including the stunning achievement of lifting the World Cup in March 1996. Since then his team has continued to succeed, and this July comprehensively won the Asia Cup, their third consecutive victory in a multiple-team one-day series, and their fourth such tournament win since the World Cup.
None of this is to ignore the individual achievements of this month's winner, who was not only dubbed "Captain Cool" upon winning the Asia Cup series, but was personally named Man of the Tournament for his batting, the highlight of which was a crushing 131 not out in his team's victory over India in the league matches. He passed 6000 one-day career runs in the series, and is now the tenth-highest run-scorer in the ODI game.

His team, Sri Lanka, have turned limited-over cricket under sub-continental conditions into a science, and his leadership has been a critical factor in Sri Lanka's continuing success. The googler's Player of the Month for July 1997 is Sri Lanka's Arjuna Ranatunga.

The peoples' choice Player of July!

Ranatunga	36%	(119 votes)
Waugh	25%	(84 votes)
Jayasuriya	23%	(76 votes)
Gillespie	15%	(50 votes)

Registered users of CricInfo were invited to vote in this poll from 3 to 8 August 1997 inclusive. The four nominations were chosen by the editor of CricInfo Interactive. Only performances during the period 1 to 31 July 1997 were to be taken into consideration in this poll. The following international matches were played during that period:

Third Test, England v Australia, July 3-7.

Asia Cup one-day series, July 14-26.

Fourth Test, England v Australia, July 24-28.

letters to the editor: email ci-forum@cricinfo.com

Date-stamped : 30 Sep97 - 22:07