The world champions headed by Arjuna Ranatunga arrived in Sri Lanka from England yesterday with sweet memories having clinched the Emirates Triangular cricket one-day championship and one off Test against England.

The jubilant Lankan contingent arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport by an Air Lanka flight last morning and were garlanded by Deputy Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Jeevan Kumaranatunga in what was a simple welcome ceremony.

MORE THAN A SPECIAL OCCASION
On proceeding to the VIP lounge the cricketers were greeted by their family members. The occasion held out a special air yesterday for the families. The cricketers were back after a successful tour having above all beaten English in their own den.

AMBITIONS CAME ALIVE
Arjuna Ranatunga, the Lankan skipper sharing his experience in England, confirmed that one of his last ambitions came alive by defeating the Englishmen. 'I'm happy and delighted with our Test match win over England. This was one of my last ambitions in my cricketing career'. He went onto say that they started negatively, losing the curtain raiser three-day match. But with familiarising to the climatical conditions and playing conditions they had become gradually used to it.

GOOD EXPOSURE FOR US
Ranatunga said that with the other four side matches, the batting had clicked and it was good exposure for the youngsters who made the maiden tour to England. Arjuna was very impressed with Suresh Perera, Mahela Jayawardena, Ravindra Pushpakumara. He was highly impressed the way young Prasanna Jayawardena kept wickets. He noted that after Mahesh Goonatillake, we have Romesh Kaluvitharana and the next in line is young Jayawardena who had shown lots of promise for the future.

Arjuna agreed that the pace bowling department was lacking with the experience Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa sidelined. But Arjuna was of the view that as youngsters without any experience they had performed well on English soil. Their plans were to restrict the runs with the bowling of Suresh Perera, Pramodaya Wickremasinghe and Muralitharan as their main trumph card to do the damage with Kumara Dharmasena and Sanath Jayasuriya supporting him from the other end.

When asked about the pitches provided to them, Arjuna said, except for a few matches, the others were good. They had practised under wet cloudy conditions and adjusted quickly to the conditions. It was a good sign that Sanath, Mahela, Haturusinghe were among the runs which augured well. The fielding was not upto the mark in the early stages, even in the first two matches in the Emirates Triangular Tournament. But after a close discussion with the seniors together with the juniors they had got their act together.

HAPPIEST TOUR
Arjuna finally concluded his briefing saying that this was one of the happiest tours he had ever made and planned to build up the side to defend the World Cup in exactly eight months which is a tough task on his shoulders.

Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lanka's match winner in the recently concluded Test match against England leap frogged into the top position in the CEAT CRICKET RATINGS.

Murali's match haul of 16 wickets fetched him 26 points to take his total points tally to 62 points.

South African speedster, Allan Donald, who was leading the ratings till the Oval test is now a distant second with 44 points to his credit.

Sri Lankan opening batsman and winner of the CEAT INTERNATIONAL CRICKETER OF THE YEAR AWARD 1997-98, Sanath Jayasuriya too marked his maiden entry to the top 10 of CEAT CRICKET RATINGS of 1998-99. Jayasuriya, whose masterly knock of 213 earned him 16 points, is now in fourth position with 35 points.

The top 10 in the CEAT CRICKET RATINGS as on September 1, 98 (Courtesy R. S. Hartley & Co. (Pvt) Ltd.

Rating Player Points

(1) Muttiah Muralitharan 62
(2) Allan Donald 44
(3) Alec Stewart 41
(4) Angus Fraser 35
(5) Sanath Jayasuriya 35
(6) Mark Boucher 25
(7) Darren Gough 24
(8) Aravinda de Silva 24
(9) Jacques Kallis 23
(10) Dominic Cork 22

Sri Lanka's historic victory against England at the Oval fetched them 9 points, taking their total team tally to 36 points in the CEAT INTERNATIONAL CRICKET TEAM OF THE YEAR AWARD RANKINGS. Sri Lankan team is followed by India and England with 18 points each to their credit. The latest ratings for CEAT INTERNATIONAL CRICKET TEAM of the year 1998-99 are: Sri Lanka (36 pts.), India and England (18 pts. each), South Africa (15 pts.), New Zealand (9 pts.), Kenya (4 pts.) and Bangladesh (2 pts.)