Goa fest: Never done an ad for money, says Arjuna Ranatunga
It’s not always the most fun thing to wake up early in the morning after you’ve just spent the night having a good time with your peers and others from a vibrant and creative industry, dancing and drinking the night away. But the turnout at the massive Grand Hyatt ballroom was quite remarkable, even though many walked in late. A butterfly turned up, fluttering around the large space, while the people waited for two stalwarts to take the stage.
Day 2 of Goa Fest started with a cracker of a dialogue between Arjuna Ranatunga, who led the Sri Lankan team to victory in the 1996 World Cup final and Rajdeep Sardessai, writer, editor and television personality. The banter was exciting, the little tidbits of knowledge interesting and the one liners humorous. When Sardesai referred to the final with Australia, when Ranatunga was shown to first hit Shane Warne for six off a lofted delivery and then stick his tongue out, ‘Rana’ responded with “…with my size, I pant a lot!” That was enough for the entire room to erupt in laughter.
The Dainik Bhaskar Knowledge Seminars are aimed at giving us an insight into the minds of individuals who have achieved great things. Later in the day, Prakash Sangam, CEO of Redbus and Tara Marsh, the global head of content of advertising, marketing and consulting network Wunderman would also impart some knowledge to the visiting delegates. Arjuna Ranatunga or Rajdeep Sardessai are not in the advertising industry, but they are people who know what it takes to lead a team, which is why the entire talk revolved around leadership, with the captaincy of the Sri Lankan team the main focus.
In 1996, Sri Lanka was in the midst of a civil war. But the entire country, or most of it, united around a Sri Lankan team that not many had earlier given a fighting chance of getting to the latter stages of the cricket world cup, leave alone winning it entirely.
“I never expected to win; the target was to get to the semis,” said Rana, then explaining how he put the team together, not of the best cricketers in the land, but the most committed. “I called everyone into a room and asked them, are we going to stick together through this world cup and go to the semis. Some laughed. I told them that if they were not interested, they should leave the room.”
Captains and leaders sometimes do things that puzzle others, but often they feel it’s the right thing to do. Ranatunga did something like that when he led his men to the edge of the field in Australia, to protest Muttiah Muralitharan being called a ‘chucker’. Looking back, he agrees that it was an extreme measure, but like he says with a smile, “I created an issue, like a Bollywood film.”
This enigmatic man said a lot, but the common thread that ran through the entire conversation was simple “ Do the right thing as a leader, inspire others and lead by example. This is something he has carried over into his new career as a politician, now a minister of ports and shipping. His new aim is to turn this corrupt industry on its ear.
“I told everyone, from the day I take over, I do not want corruption in this department. Forget what has happened in the past. Now we will be different,” he explains, while acknowledging that it’s easier to do something like this in a country like Sri Lanka, which has a much smaller population as compared to India.
He talked about his mother who he said influenced his decision not to do endorsements. “When I was approached to do an ad, I told the man to talk to my mother. She said no and explained to me that I shouldn’t sell my talents for money. Now every time someone asks me to endorse their brand, I tell him to convince my mother first. If they can do that, I’ll do the ad.”
Arjuna Ranatunga has never done an ad for money, not matter how hard people try and convince his mother. Perhaps now we know where he gets his stubbornness and his leadership skills from.
