successful unit. He propelled Sri Lanka in a massive run chase of 313 against Zimbabwe at the 1992 World Cup by scoring unbeaten 88 which also marked the first instance that a team had successfully chased down the target in excess 300 in ODI history. Aravinda de Silva was the team captain at the 1992 World Cup. He led the team to win the 1996 World Cup and he scored the winning runs for Sri Lanka in the final and remained unbeaten on 47. His innovative captaincy took a Sri Lanka team, given little chance prior to the competition, for cricket's greatest prize. His strategies were commended by many cricketing greats and followed by their teams. He was the brain behind the strategy of scoring as many runs as possible in the first 15 overs of an ODI match in which there are field restrictions. This strategy was still followed by the batsmen in the Powerplays. He was widely recognised as a belligerent leader and was famous for defending his players at all costs regardless of what they did. He also captained Sri Lanka to triumph at the 1997 Asia Cup at home defeating India in the final to lift their second Asia Cup title and also it happened to be the first Asia Cup title for Sri Lanka since 1986 after a gap of 11 years. Ranatunga was also the top run scorer of the 1997 Asia Cup tournament with a tally of 272 runs with a remarkable average of 136 including a century and two fifties. Under his captaincy, Sri Lanka secured their first ever historic test win in English soil against England and also the first ever test series win for Sri Lanka in England against England which happened to be in 1998 just two years after winning the 50 over World Cup. Sri Lanka secured a memorable 10 wicket win in that one-off test match and Ranatunga became the first Sri Lankan captain to register a test victory in England. His younger brother Dammika Ranatunga made his test debut against Australia in 1989-90 when Arjuna was the captain of the Sri Lankan test side. It also became the first instance for Sri Lanka cricket whereas a cricketer had made his international debut for a team captained by his brother. His another brother Sanjeewa Ranatunga also made his test debut when Arjuna was still the captain of