Healy comes clean on most famous sledge

It's one of the most famous sledges in Australian cricket history, but the reality is that it simply didn't happen.

Sri Lanka's 1995-96 tour of Australia was mired in controversy. From ball-tampering accusations, that the great Richie Benaud described as akin to a French farce, to the Boxing Day Test that saw Muttiah Muralitharan no-balled for throwing.

During the final one-day match of the summer at the SCG, Healy and Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga became involved in a heated confrontation, after the feisty skipper called for a runner.

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Ranatunga, who made a habit of antagonising opposition teams, claimed he had cramp.

Wicketkeeper Ian Healy is alleged to have responded with a line that has gone down in cricket folklore.

"You don't get a runner for being a fat c—," Healy is reported to have said.

But as is often the case, the facts have become distorted over the years.

"It didn't happen," Healy told Wide World of Sports.

"What I said was, 'You can't have a runner for being unfit.'

"His reply was that he had cramp. And I said 'You've got cramp because you're fat. Have a look at yourself.'

"And that was it."

The situation threatened to turn ugly when Ranatunga confronted Healy, forcing Australian skipper Mark Taylor to intervene.

"Arjuna ran back towards me, so Tubby is yelling at me from midwicket, telling me to get out of the way. And I'm gesturing that I haven't said anything wrong," Healy said.

"And as Arjuna was running towards me I said, 'Well, your leg's OK now champ.'

"Then I called out to the umpire, Peter Parker, and said, 'This is going to be fair, Porky, you've got the world's quickest man, (Sanath) Jayasuriya, running for the world's slowest man, Arjuna.'

"That's how it all transpired. It wasn't nasty or anything. I don't like seeing the fat c— line being written in books, it's horrible, and it's not true."

Healy confirmed that he's seen Ranatunga in the years since they both retired, and noted his captaincy was exactly what Sri Lanka needed at that time of their development.

"I keep in touch with Arjuna through his cousin," Healy said.

"I've had dinner with him a couple of times.

"He was confrontational, but I thought it was a nice sort of confrontational, and firm.

"He was doing what Virat Kohli now does with India, he was leading them out of submission, leading them out of a submissive mindset to a competitive mindset, to not take a backward step. I think he did it quite well, he wasn't too confrontational.

"He was strong, as you should be at that level of cricket."

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