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| Saturday, 17 July 2004 |
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Sour grapes from spin rival One can only sympathise with Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne after he made a brave effort to overhaul Muttiah Muralitharan's world record of 527 Test wickets and failed. The most Warne could come up with was to equal the Sri Lankan spinner's record and he knows that he has missed out on a golden opportunity of becoming the leading wicket-taker of the world albeit for even a short period of time. Warne himself had said before the series that this was his best chance to draw ahead of Muralitharan, with the Sri Lankan spinner having skipped the two-Test series for personal reasons. Warne began the series 11 wickets shy of getting the record and came to Cairns for the second Test needing eight wickets having taken only three wickets in two innings at Darwin. The fact that Sri Lankan leg-spinner Upul Chandana, who is not in the same class as Warne took a career best haul of ten wickets on the Cairns pitch must have told in the final count of Warne's disappointment. On the same surface Warne with all his brilliant skills could muster only seven wickets. But it was sour grapes on Warne's part to cast remarks at his spin rival Muralitharan after the Test. One can understand Warne's frustrations for failing to surpass Muralitharan's record but to take it all on him is unfair. Warne's comments are not justified when he says that Muralitharan plays most of his Test matches in Sri Lanka where they prepare wickets for him which spin from ball one. Then Warne goes on to say that Muralitharan has only Chaminda Vaas to rival him, whereas he has three or four of the best bowlers in the world for the last ten years McGrath, Gillespie etc. Warne also takes a shot at Muralitharan by saying that he doesn't have the luxury of playing Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, the minnows of Test cricket a lot of times. Muralitharan cannot be blamed for the international cricket itinerary, which has seen Sri Lanka play Bangladesh and Zimbabwe more often than Australia. If Cricket Australia thought Zimbabwe was not good enough for them at Test level and cancelled their two Tests against them recently, it is not Muralitharan's fault that Sri Lanka went ahead and played against Zimbabwe and within the course of that Test series he broke Courtney Walsh's world record. With an International Cricket Council (ICC) Test championship in place all ten full member countries are bound to play every other member country in a minimum of two tests in a series. In this context it is unjustified for Warne to come out with such scathing comments. For the record Muralitharan has taken 107 wickets (avg. 13.74) in 16 Tests against the featherweights of cricket Zimbabwe and Bangladesh whereas Warne has never played Bangladesh and has played Zimbabwe just once for six wickets. What was in store for Murali? 'Thank God Murali is not here' said one ardent Sri Lankan cricket fan at Cairns. He was right by a long way. Contrary to lure Muralitharan to make the tour to Australia there were well laid plans to subject him to humiliation during the series. There were enclosures erected at both Test venues for spectators to heckle Muralitharan wearing special tee shirts with the words: "The Bent Elbow Tour of Darwin and Cairns" imprinted on them. Further, a Sri Lankan supporter wearing one of Muralitharan's cricket shirts (gifted to him by the player) with his name imprinted on the back was taunted with remarks as 'Chucker' whenever he moved around the ground at Cairns. One section of the spectators also went on shouting 'Warnie is not a chucker' repeatedly during the Test, while another wag was overheard saying: 'Murali is not here because he has gone to play a game of baseball.' However there are a few who hate Warne for what he is and support Muralitharan. They say that allegations against Warne for his involvement with bookies, sex and drugs are hard and proven facts, whereas the issue of Muralitharan's bowling action is always debatable. |
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