Russel Premakumaran Arnold (Tamil: ரசல் பிரேமகுமரன் ஆனோல்ட், born 25 October 1973), or Russel Arnold, is a former Sri Lankan cricketer of Tamil descent, who played all forms of the game. He played as the finisher role in the Sri Lankan team batting down the order at international level. Arnold currently works as an international commentator. He was the first Twenty20 International cap for Sri Lanka as he was part of Sri Lanka's first ever T20I team. He retired from cricket in 2007 after playing the final in 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup. Early life Arnold was encouraged to take the sport of cricket by his grandfather. He played school cricket at the St. Peter's College, Colombo where he received his primary and secondary education. He played for Sri Lanka Under19 cricket team and impressed in the tour of England in a 3 match test series in 1992 where he scored 242 runs at the average of 48.40. He first arrived to domestic cricket in 1993 at the age of 20. International career Arnold made his Test debut against Pakistan on April and his One day international debut against South Africa later in the year on 6 November 1997. His test debut came as a blessing in disguise as he came as an injury replacement to Roshan Mahanama who was injured in a batting session in the nets. He was initially called into the Sri Lankan reserve squad for the home series against Pakistan in 1997 following his performances in domestic circuit. Originally an opening batsman, Arnold has since moved down the batting order mainly due to the rise of Marvan Atapattu. He is most famous in the pearl island as a 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. He batted at no 6 for the first time in his career during the Coca-Cola Champions Trophy 1999. The then Sri Lankan team head coach Dav Whatmore had felt that Russel could be utilised well when he plays down the order. In an ODI match against Zimbabwe in 1999, Arnold along with Sajeewa de Silva set the record for the highest 10th