Colombo: Sri Lanka's cricketing legend Arjuna Ranatunga has been castigated by a judge over allegations he assaulted teenage cricket players, seven of whom ended up in hospital.Magistrate Kusala Weerawardhana said Ranatunga had committed a "very serious act" unbecoming of a celebrity and warned him to be better behaved.Press reports here highlighted the judge's comments made late on Wednesday after Ranatunga appeared before him following the cricketer's arrest at a local police station."As a respectable person in the country you should have behaved in a more decent manner. You should not have acted in this fashion," the Colombo magistrate was quoted as saying in the state-run 'Daily News'.Ranatunga is accused of beating high school children who chased a cricket ball that went into the compound of the Ranatunga family home on Friday evening. The Ranatunga home adjoins the Asoka College in Colombo."Children are children. You were also a child. When dealing with children you should have been more careful, as well as a respected person in the country," Weerawardhana said.Despite his humiliating reprimand, Ranatunga was released on bail of Sri Lankan Rupees 55,000 ($ 647) and ordered to reappear in court in a week's time.Earlier, Colombo magistrate Weerawardhana remanded Ranatunga's elder brother, Prasanna, and four of his staff over the alleged assault on the high school students.
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