Former Sri Lankan skipper Arjuna Ranatunga faced the wrath of Indian cricket fans on Twitter after he took a dig at them with his remarks regarding the crowd trouble during the third ODI between Sri Lanka and India at Pallekele.
Crowd trouble forced the umpires to stop the play for over 30 minutes as India were cruising to a series-clinching win.
After the match, Ranatunga asked Sri Lankan fans to not act like Indian spectators. The comments were in reference to the 1996 World Cup semi-final match between India and Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, which was disrupted by Indian fans.
“I request our cricket lovers not to behave like Indian spectators. We have a very good history and culture. Such misbehaviour is not accepted in our culture and history,” Ranatunga was quoted as saying by various media reports.
The comments, however, didn’t go down well with Indian fans, who trolled Ranatunga for Sri Lanka’s poor performance on the pitch.
Depressed @ArjunaRanatunga urges srilankan crowd not be behave like indian crowd..
Lol..Heights of depression…— Dilip Varma Mudunuri (@DilipMudunuri) August 31, 2017
Getting on indian crowd for something unpleasant happened in sri lanka shows your character @ArjunaRanatunga
— Dilip Varma Mudunuri (@DilipMudunuri) August 31, 2017
Perhaps he can tell their srilankan cricketers to play like indian cricketers #ArjunaRanatunga
— giridharan (@giridharan71) August 31, 2017
@ArjunaRanatunga Neither your country nor your cricket is moving forward.Crowd behaviour the other day shows how backward is your country
— Harshad khodbole (@KhodboleH) August 31, 2017
By referring to Eden’O’96 you have made cricket poorer @arjunaranatunga
— Suresh(idly) (@sureshidly) August 30, 2017
@ArjunaRanatunga Pls thnk before spk, SL fans are silent when we hit the balls but in india not like that…
— senthil kumar (@psksenthil) August 31, 2017
I strongly condemn your comments on Indian fans,,, @ArjunaRanatunga restrain from provocative words
— Praveen Kumaran (@MrThumbsup) August 30, 2017
Arjuna ranatunga before talk about Indian fans teach disciple to ur Sri Lanka players, Suraj randiv Who bowled no ball to sehwag and (part1)
— Vignesh kitcha (@Vigneshkitcha) August 29, 2017
@ArjunaRanatunga 1997 was the only year Srilanka played well against India, dont be frustrated ,build a team and prove with results #moron
— Mohan (@mohancs6) August 31, 2017
@ArjunaRanatunga instead f telling ur fans to nt t behv lik Indian fans.Pls suggest ur @SriLanka team to play like #indian team.#IndvsSL
— Anushku_Anamika (@ItsPbg) August 31, 2017
@ArjunaRanatunga I think u should bite the words when u adresseed ur crowd for behaving like indian spectators.
— Rajesh Kaushik (@anshjunior) August 30, 2017
Being a minister&formerCricketer @ArjunaRanatunga shdnt behave lyk SL’n fans. I cn undrstnd his frustration bt salvation lies in performance
— Shubham Kumar (@imshubhamkumar) August 30, 2017