Sri Lankan cricketing legend Arjuna Ranatunga was released on bail when he appeared at a packed Colombo courthouse to answer charges that, with his brother and several others, he assaulted teenage cricket players.
Magistrate Kusala Weerawardhana also ordered bail for the 1996 World Cup-winning captain's brother, Prasanna, and four members oftheir household staff.
Ranatunga is accused of beating high school children who chased a cricket ball that went into the compound of the Ranatunga family home, which adjoins Asoka College in Colombo.
The magistrate ordered the Ranatunga family and friends, as well as the victims and their families and sympathisers, to maintain the peace.
She had castigated Ranatunga and said he had committed a "very serious act."
