A very simple and tranquil setting is where the elderly mother is living with some domestic helps around. She never played the game but has a great contribution in her country's glorious cricket progress. It's nothing exceptional for a family to produce a few international cricketers but what is special for Nandani Ranatunga was that she did all the hard work in very tough days to make four international cricketers out of her six sons. And one of them was none other than Sri Lanka's World Cup winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga, the man who single-handedly rewrote his country's cricket history. Arjuna, time and again, has recalled his mother's contribution behind the success and there are many who also believe that it is so.

She is well-known in the island's cricketing circles not only for her second son who captained Sri Lanka to great successes during his career of 93 Tests and 269 one-dayers, but also because of his eldest son Dammika, who played two Tests while Nishanta played only two one-dayers and Sanjeeva was capped nine times in Tests and 13 times in one-day internationals.

Prasanna played club cricket but he had the knack in politics while the youngest, Ruwan, only played at the under-17 levels before switching to other professions.

If someone thought that she was very proud of her sons' successes in cricket then he or she is definitely making a great mistake. In her philosophy, success is only the last goal in life and there is something else to achieve.

"Honestly speaking, I am not exceptionally proud of my sons' success in cricket even that of Arjuna's. I am a mother, a very simple mother, who wanted to see her children happy in their life. And my only desire in life is to do everything in a fair way," said the delighted mother.

"My father was a school headmaster and my mother was also teacher. My parents were middle-class people and they were not affluent but they didn't bother about money. They were very particular about the fair amount of money. We were asked not to do incredible things but study well and lead the life in a fair way. I tried to inject these values in my children," she added.

During her hour-long chat with two Bangladeshi reporters, Nandani was more interested to talk about the values in life rather than cricket, although she is still a great fan of the game.

Nandani had to rise before dawn everyday to take her sons to Colombo from a place 21km away where she lived and said that Anand College played a big role in making her boys successful in life.

Nandani had to do all the hard work, as her husband Reggie Ranatunga was busy with politics.

"I never liked politics but what I always believed in my life is not to interfere with anybody's desire," she said adding that her main mantra is to lead a simple life.