COLOMBO, Dec 17 Ruling party MP and cricketing legend Arjuna Ranatunga on Thursday joined the opposition Sarath Fonseka bandwagon saying that he wanted the ex-army commander to become the president of Sri Lanka to rid the country and Sri Lankan cricket of high corruption.

But strangely, Ranatunga said that he would remain in the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) the head of which is Mahinda Rajapaksa, a candidate for the Sri Lankan Presidency.

Ranatunga has been at odds with the cricket administrators of Sri Lanka and the Sports Ministry. He is also one of the few SLFP stalwarts who is not a minister in the Rajapaksa government. Coming from a political family, Arjuna's father, the Late Reggie Ranatunga, was also an MP and a minister in the Chandrika Kumaratunga government.

Arjuna is the second ruling party MP to defect to the Fonseka camp on the issue of corruption. Earlier, Wijedasa Rajapakse, the former chairman of the parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises and noted whistle blower had crossed over after his recommendations were disregarded.

High corruption and family rule have been two issues on which Fonseka is fighting the Presidential election.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan Supreme Court rejected a Fundamental Rights (FR) petition filed by Gen Sarath Fonseka seeking to enhance his security.

While Fonseka had been asking for the same level of security as he had when he was army commander and chief of Defence Staff, the government had been saying that the security provided was adequate given the fact that Gen Fonseka had retired.

He had also been given the security he had asked for.

General Fonseka had written to President Rajapaksa saying that the LTTE could kill him even now just as the Sikh militants killed the retired Indian army chief, Gen A.S.Vaidya, while in retirement in Pune.

On Wednesday, a lawyer filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking an order to oust Gen Fonseka from the official residence of the Army Commader as he had retired and it was only proper that the high security house be allotted to the new Army Commander Gen Jagath Jayasuriya.