Muttiah Muralitharan

With a career boasting of 527 Test wickets, the highest wickets in Test matches, and 366 ODI scalps, Muttiah Muralitharan is no ordinary wizard with the ball.

He has been a member of the Sri Lankan cricket team since 1992 since making his Test debut against Australia at Colombo in the Australian cricket tour of Sri Lanka of 1992 and ODI against India at Colombo in 1993.He was born on 17th April, 1972 at Kandy in Sri Lanka. Also known as the "Smiling Assassin", he has continuously improved his game and gained popularity with each passing day. His strike rate of 6 wickets per match is also phenomenal. Since then, he has just kept on improving. His career statistics speak for themselves and deserve total credit. Despite all the controversies surrounding him over the years, he has stood bravely in the face of those controversies and showed the world that he is a man of character. From a loose-limbed, open-chested action, his chief weapons are the big-spinning offbreak and two versions of the top-spinner, one which goes straight on and the other, which has now been labelled his “doosra”, which spins in the opposite direction to his stock ball.

Muralitharan was called for throwing by Australian umpires Daryll Hair and Ross Emerson in each of the previous two tours, in 1995-96 and 1998-99. Emerson’s calling of Murali in January 1999 almost led to a Sri Lankan walk out at a One-day international in Adelaide. He was later cleared by the ICC after biomechanical analysis at the University of Western Australia and at the University of Hong Kong in 1996. This was followed in 1999 by further assessments in Australia and England. Scientists concluded that his unusual action created “the optical illusion of throwing”. Nasser Hussain was pointed out by Muralitharan for the reason that he called Muralitharan “a chucker and cheat” in the series played in 2002-03 against England. After Australia’s tour of Sri Lanka in 2004, the match referee Chris Broad, termed his “doosra” delivery as suspicious and raised voice against it in ICC. Australian Prime Minister John Howard also termed him as a “chucker” before the recent series against Australia in 2004.

Shane Warne said just before the series that Muralitharan can show up any minute, further confirming that Muralitharan should get so carried away that he would certainly not show up although his decision for not coming was decided on his own supporters’ backing and for the future of his cricketing years. Arjuna Ranatunga terms these allegations against Muralitharan as “white conspiracy”. Due to all these continuous allegations by Australia and England, Muralitharan has been in and out of the team many a time but his fortitude, courage and perseverance have made sure that his career has still a long way to go. He won accolades from former Australian captain, Steve Waugh, who said he was "the Don Bradman of bowling".

Regarding his controversial delivery, “doosra”, given his faster shoulder rotation speed, the “doosra” does not breach the current laws of the game and since the ICC itself admits that the research conducted on spin bowling is insufficient, there is no justification in concluding that Murali is operating outside the laws. No other spin bowler has been officially scientifically tested using the present levels of tolerance as a benchmark. A grave injustice is being done to Murali by making him a lone victim of what appears to be an arbitrarily fixed level of tolerance. In the interest of justice and fairplay, Murali should be permitted to continue bowling the doosra at least until a valid database is collected on the various spin bowling disciplines.

Wisden rated Muralitharan as the “Best Bowler of the Century” and this title fits him perfectly. No bowler matches the records that Muralitharan holds currently and as Shane Warne, equal to him in highest test wickets at 527, has said that he is even capable of 1000 wickets at the pace which he takes wickets in each test match. Be it a test or one-day, Muralitharan can turn the tables on his opponents at any time. He surely is a “Legend” who is here to stay in cricketing books forever.