Arjuna 'to vote against' budget
Sri Lanka's cricket star parliamentarian Arjuna Ranatunga says he will vote against the government's budget proposals.
Ranatunga who steered Sri Lankan cricket team to the World Cup glory in 1996 later won a parliamentary seat contesting from the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). "I will inform the President that I will not be able to vote for the budget proposals unless some changes made," he told BBC Sandeshaya. In his capacity as the Finance Minister, President Mahinda Rajapaksa delivered 2008 budget proposals on 07 November. Sport development Ranatunga says the proposals lacked provisions for the development of sport in the island nation. The former President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, has invited him to join active politics, says Ranatunga, to help develop sports including his favourite cricket. Ranatunga was believed to be frustrated as he was never offered the sports portfolio. "I cannot vote for a budget that lacks any support for sports development," he told BBC Sinhala.com. Both Presidents, Kumaratunga and Rajapaksa, made him a deputy minister of unrelated subjects. Ranatunga who earlier resigned as the deputy minister for Tourism, is one of the handful of ruling party parliamentarians without a portfolio.