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| Friday, 9 April 2004 |
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Sports | |
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Martyrdom and Muralitharan by Quintus de Zylva As Muthiah Muralitharan winds his way back home to the more hospitable climes of Kundasale and in to the loving arms of his mother and father, for a well earned R and R, at Easter, the question arises what is next in store for this simple lovable human being. History tells us that more famous men than Murali have had to walk this walk only once, and then been found to be either guilty or not guilty, accused or acquitted, once and for all. But Murali has had to do all this before - not once but twice earlier, in 1995 and 1999 and now in the year 2004. This four yearly cycle seems to be a capitulation to the rantings and ravings of the mob - just as it happened two centuries ago. The local press in the Sunflower State have suggested that he has a permanent parking bay at the Perth International Airport. This recurrent request for more detailed scientific scrutiny of his action has surely to stop somewhere. How many more times can Murali be subject to this humiliation of having to perform, bare bodied, in front of television cameras, with glistening electrodes like those famous nails, adhering to his chest, shoulders, arms and elbows, so that the accusing vocal mob might be silenced? Who like Mel Gibson and "The Passion" is making a fortune out of this four yearly re-enactment? Isn't it time that the powers that be, once and for all, accept the scientific evidence, that has been stated clearly before - "THE MOTION DATA SUGGESTS THAT THE BOWLER'S ACTION MAY LOOK SUSPICIOUS FROM CERTAIN ANGLES WHEN IT IS IN FACT LEGITIMATE - AN OPTICAL ILLUSION". Such was the conclusion way back in 1999. And if the conclusion in 2004 is much the same, the cricketing world must be told so quite clearly, so that the clamouring for crucifying an innocent human being, might end. Ian Healy on the Channel 9 Cricket Show said that he was very interested to hear what David Young the Orthopaedic Surgeon had to say, about Murali's action. Ian Healy went on to say "Now let's get those results out and filter them down to the players ... so that every shadow of doubt is finished and then he will be alright". Cricketers and the followers of cricket must then surely accept the scientific proof that what the human eye sees is an aberration of the truth and all the rumblings and rantings of rabid journalists and umpires of a by-gone era, can be assigned to a waste paper basket - where they rightly belong. Gary Sobers on the 50th anniversary of Test cricket on his home ground in Bridgetown, had this to say recently "If I had my time over again, I would never have played cricket. Why? Because of people like you - THE PRESS - do nothing but criticise. I get sick of people who were no good at the game themselves criticising all the time". And this from one of the most gifted sportsmen of all time! Murali himself was once asked about aggression in the face of all this vile baseless accusation - as usual he just flashed his Colgate thirty two and said " I just smile and ignore them". He must say to himself -what fools these mortals be! For Murali himself is no mere mortal - he has risen to those dizzy heights that only men of the calibre of Neil Armstrong and Apollo 11 have attained. The ICC President and the ICC Chief Executive have asked for calm and maturity in the face of this crisis in cricket. Yes, it is time for all intelligent followers of cricket to be fed the conclusions and scientific details of all this world-wide testing of Murali, so that cricket can rise up from the ashes and us, mere mortals, sit back and enjoy the spectacle. Barcelona has just voted to be the first to ban barbaric bull-fighting. Let's hope the powers that be will put an end to all the barbaric trauma that Murali has had to undergo repeatedly. The city of Fallujah is burning today only because Iraq was falsely accused of hiding those infamous weapons of mass destruction. Murali has had nothing to hide and gladly subjected himself to yet another testing procedure down under. Kamran Abbasi, deputy editor of the British Medical Journal, has said "cricket should be inclusive not discriminate on the basis of anatomy or physiology .... a new law with greater definition would remove many of the subjective analyses that spawn accusations of racial bias". Peter FitzSimons in the Fitz Files of the Sydney Morning Herald ( January 25-26 2003 ) had this to say about Muthiah Muralitharan " A GENTLE SOUL AND PERHAPS THE FINEST BOWLER IN THE HISTORY OF CRICKET, THIS WEEK ANNOUNCED THAT HE WAS IN ALL LIKELIHOOD LEAVING THESE SHORES FOR THE LAST TIME, NEVER TO RETURN. THIS IS ON THE GROUNDS OF THE CONSTANT ABUSE HE HAS SUFFERED....... ASK NOT FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS, IT TOLLS FOR US". Cricket Australia and all fair minded Australian cricket followers would be the poorer if Muthiah Muralitharan does not appear in Darwin and Cairns in July this year. We'll miss his flashing smile in the face of hostility, his calmness in the face of crisis and above all just plain and simple Murali himself. |
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