Russel Arnold

Russel Premakumaran Arnold (Tamil: ரசல் பிரேமகுமரன் ஆனோல்ட், Sinhala: රසල් ප්‍රේමකුමාරන් ආනල්ඩ්; born 25 October 1973), or Russel Arnold, is a former Sri Lankan cricketer of Tamil descent, who played all forms of the game. Arnold currently works as an international commentator. He was the first Twenty20 International cap for Sri Lanka. He retired from cricket in 2007.[2]

For the American bridge player, see Russ Arnold.

Russel Arnold
ரசல் ஆனோல்ட்
රසල් ආනල්ඩ්
Personal information
Full nameRussel Premakumaran Arnold
Born (1973-10-25) 25 October 1973
Colombo, Sri Lanka
NicknameGuppiya, Mayil [1]
BattingLeft-handed batsman (LHB)
BowlingRight-arm off break
RoleBatsman, commentator
International information
National side
Test debut (cap 68)19 April 1997 v Pakistan
Last Test1 July 2004 v Australia
ODI debut (cap 91)6 November 1997 v South Africa
Last ODI28 April 2007 v Australia
Only T20I (cap 1)15 June 2006 v England
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI T20I
Matches 44 180 1
Runs scored 1,821 3,950 7
Batting average 28.01 35.26 7.00
100s/50s 3/10 1/28 –/–
Top score 123 103 7
Balls bowled 1,334 2,157 –
Wickets 11 40 –
Bowling average 54.36 43.47 –
5 wickets in innings – – –
10 wickets in match – n/a –
Best bowling 3/76 3/47 –
Catches/stumpings 51/– 48/– –/–
Source: Cricinfo, 2 May 2016

International career

Arnold made his Test debut against Pakistan in 1997 and his One day international debut against South Africa later in the year. Originally an opening batsmen, Arnold has since moved down the batting order. He is most famous in the pearl island as a utility and very versatile player, making him ideally suitable for the limited over version of the game. However, when he started his career, he was seen primarily as a solid top order batsmen where he impressed against Australia during the AIWA cup of 1999, as well as the subsequent Test series against them, where he batted at No. 3. Failure in the 2003 Cricket World Cup saw him sidelined for many months. However, he fought his way back into the side with a string of good scores in domestic cricket for his club, Nondescripts. A calm and cool player in a crisis situation, Arnold has dragged Sri Lanka out of many sticky situations. He is highly valued for his gritty qualities and is considered an unselfish team man. He is considered an ideal No. 6; he is a Methodist Christian of Tamil descent.[3]

Nicknamed "Rusty" by Roshan Mahanama and Pramodya Wickramasinghe, due to it being a very common nickname for the name Russel, and also it complemented his batting style as tough and durable- though not really pretty. His late cut shot is admired by many critics at that time where he used the shot so often to spin bowling.

During a match against India at Sharjah, Arnold helped Sanath Jayasuriya to post his highest individual score of 189. Sanath and Arnold had a good partnership until Sanath stumped after a brilliant 189.

He along with Sajeewa de Silva set the record for the highest 10th wicket stand for Sri Lanka in ODI history(51)[4][5]

Retirement

During April 2007 he announced, through team manager Michael Tissera, that he intended to retire from international cricket after the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup final, which came as a shock to Sri Lankan cricket. He cited the pressure of too much travel as his reason.

After retirement, he played A-grade cricket in Sydney for Hornsby District Cricket Club and has also played numerous games for the Melbourne Super Kings in Melbourne. He also coached at Barker College, a prestigious private school in Sydney's north. He also was assistant coach to Decan Chargers in the IPL before the team was removed from the competition.

Current career

Arnold is now a popular television commentator and also writes a weekly Q+A column on Island Cricket.[6] Russel also keeps his fans entertained using his iPhone app 'Ask Rusty' launched in 2012. It was launched in 2012 along with the T20 World cup. The iPhone app allows Russel's fans to ask questions directly from Russel Arnold. In addition, it consists of feeds of Russel's match predictions where the user can actively participate in voting. On 1 December 2016, Arnold won the Dialog Sri Lanka Cricket awards for the International Commentator of the year 2015.[7]

References
  1. Russel Arnold [@RusselArnold69] (4 March 2014). "Hahaha... They used to call me Guppiya.. RT @MrCricket007: do u have any Nik name?"" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  2. "Where are Herath's team-mates from his 1999 Test debut?". ESPN Cricinfo. 5 November 2018. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  3. "Jayasuriya is King Midas". Rediff.com. 18 July 2003. Retrieved 17 December 2008.
  4. "Cricket Records | Records | Sri Lanka | One-Day Internationals | Highest partnerships by wicket | ESPN Cricinfo". Cricinfo. Archived from the original on 23 November 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  5. "2nd ODI: Zimbabwe v Sri Lanka at Bulawayo, Dec 12, 1999 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo". Cricinfo. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  6. "Island Cricket - Home of the Sri Lankan Cricket Fan".
  7. "Dialog Cricket Awards 2016: List of award winners". Cricket Machan. 1 December 2016.
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