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| Saturday, 27 March 2004 |
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'Muralitharan first wanted to be a fast bowler' by S. M. Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy Sports Correspondent "I saw nine year old Muralitharan playing cricket with a softball in the lower school compound of St. Anthony's College, Kandy, which is spacious and was one time used as a car park. Even at that tender age there was a lot of cricket in him. I called him and asked whether he would like to attend college junior cricket practices. His reply was that he will speak to his parents and let me know". A few days later his parents met me and told me that little Murali could attend practices" said the world's best off spinners first coach Sunil Fernando at the ceremony held at the Asgiriya Stadium on March 16th to felicitate Muralitharan on capturing his 500th wicket when he bowled Michael Kasprowicz in the Australian first innings of the second cricket test. Sunil Fernando, a very humble cricket coach who fed the nursery of St. Anthony's College cricket team producing players of the calibre of Ruwan Kalpage, Nuwan Kalpage, Piyal Wijetunga and many others till the early nineties said that 'Little Muralitharan wanted to be a fast bowler as any little boy would like to do. He was a good top order batsman too at junior level. But at the nets I saw little Muralitharan spinning the ball with a prodigious turn in his slower ball to bamboozle the batsman. Considering his build, I felt he may not go far as a fast bowler but he may succeed as a batsman as he was hitting the ball hard. But here was a bowler who could be developed into a top spinner. Sunil Fernando said that he encouraged Muralitharan to spin the ball and even at the young age he was spinning the ball both ways. That was at the junior level. Thus it was the foresight and careful planning and identifying the talents of a young cricketer by Sunil Fernando his first coach which produced the world's best spinner and now on his course to break the world record for highest number of test wickets as he has already captured 500 test wickets. Murali first practised in the back yard of Sunil Fernando's residence where he conducted a cricket coaching class for juniors who needed special attention at Katugastota and it was here Muralitharan cut his teeth in cricket along with some of the Antonian junior cricketers. It must be said that this is in an important turning point in this great bowlers cricketing career and who knows that if not for this discovery by Sunil Fernando and turning him from a fast bowler into a spinner, the cricketing world would have missed seeing this great bowler and would have been lost to cricket. Sunil Fernando is presently Central Province Cricket Coach and also handles junior national team. Former Principal of St. Anthonys' College Rev. Fr. Stephen Abrahams during his tenure of Principalship at the school by the Mahaweli that Muralitharan exploded into fame as a devastating spinner said that though the name of Muralitharan is on the tip of the tongue of every local cricket fan and foreigners it was not so fifteen years ago. It was a tongue twister for many. The cricketer commentators at the Trinity-Antonian limited over cricket match in the early nineties had a time in pronouncing his name. They pronounced it as 'Muralitharan or Mulathidaran something like that. I had to pull them out of their predicament and told them 'Just call him Murali'. That did the trick and the commentators were put at ease. Thus Muralitharan was a born spinner and his name itself spun the tongues of the cricket commentators. Said Rev. Fr. Stephen Abrahams when Muralitharan completed his G.C.E. Ordinary Level Examination, the school had no class in keeping with his choice of subjects for the Advanced Level Examination. So he had advised him to join another school for him to continue his studies. But no way, he had replied and that he would rather remain at St. Anthony's and follow his studies in the Sinhala medium of instruction where there was a class for the subjects he had selected recalled Rev. Fr. Stephen Abrahams now in his retirement and is the Warden at St. Anthony's College. This writer first met Muralitharan when he was the scorer for the senior team and even in that task, he made available whatever details which were requested. A very methodical and helpful boy he was and I followed his cricket from junior cricket right upto the time he left school with frequent 'write ups' of his deeds with the ball. |
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