|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Saturday, 6 December 2003 |
 |
|
 |
Sports | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
Murali the wonder of our age by Richard Dwight Ceylon, as the country was then known in the pre and early post war years specifically in the forties and fifties, had an elderly set of cricketers, who may have gone to their rest with a measure of skepticism, as to whether we would ever be admitted as a fully fledged Test playing nation. They may have even likened it, as stiff an ordeal as winning a Gold medal at the Olympics, by one of our athletes. The reason for such thinking by our staid and conventional band of gentlemen cricketers of that time - was that whilst our purely English batting on the classical mould, was of a fair standard, our bowling however was not strong enough to contain the opposing batsmen from abroad - who were able to score freely and run up big scores. It's a pity that none of them were around to see Sri Lanka (as the country is now known) gain Test status, nor to witness the ageless wonder in Muttiah Muralitharan, have opposing batsmen at his mercy by his extraordinary ability with the ball. Neither those early cricketers, nor we in the past years, would have ever dreamt, that this comparatively small third world developing country, suffering deprivation in one form or other, could produce a leading world class bowler, a spinning sensation of this magnitude. And it's from this environment, that this gem of a bowler was unearthed. Often great gifts we know, have had their origins from small places like this. He had undoubtedly become the cynosure in the world of cricket, making many to sit up and take note of and, increasing as well the country's image. Apart from taking the usual wickets, he has a fondness for taking five wickets and over in an innings, and this he proved with telling effect at Galle, when he took 7 wickets, to further enhance his ever increasing reputation of Sri Lanka's spinning wizard of rare ability. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
