Double celebrations for Murali

IT was double celebration time for Sri Lanka's spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan. He has capped the arrival of his son Naren by becoming the first bowler in cricket history to take 1000 wickets in both forms of the game - Tests and One-day Internationals.

Each time Murali breaks a bowling record his critics will be arming themselves to demean his performance and discredit it by accusing him of having an illegal bowling action.

It is to the credit of Murali that he has somehow endured his detractors from around the world and especially in Australia and continued to ply his trade regardless.

Each time Murali has performed he has not only raised his performances to a new level but also raised the blood pressure levels of several of his cynics.

From the time he was called for throwing in a Test match against Australia at Melbourne in 1995, Murali has carried the stigma of a 'chucker'.

His bowling action has been put to the test umpteen number of times through the ICC process which is in place and on each occasion he has come out triumphantly much to the disappointment of his critics, who would love to see him banished from the game.

Murali underwent a traumatic time in Australia in the recently concluded tour where spectators called him a cheat with virtually every ball he bowled. How he hated those remarks. It is the Aussies way of heckling a cricketer.

They challenge you with certain remarks and if you counter them with performances on the field they will respect you.

One has to admire the man's courage and mental strength to fight and overcome such adversity which would have ended the career of many cricketers.

Throughout his career Murali has fought against all odds and despite the stumbling blocks that has been placed in his way he has managed to hurdle past them to become the first bowler in cricket history to capture 1000 wickets.

What better occasion to achieve that rare milestone than in one's 100th Test match. Even that magical figure of 1000 wickets Murali got to was also under controversial circumstances when Bangladesh batsman Khaled Mashud was given out caught when the ball only hit his pad in the first Test at Chittagong.

But that's cricket. Murali will tell you the many times he has been frustrated by umpiring decisions which have gone against him. It works both ways. That is why this game has often been referred to as 'the glorious uncertainties of cricket'.

Murali's 1004 wickets to be exact have come in the shape of 593 Tests and 411 one-day wickets. His nearest rival is Australian spin icon Shane Warne who has a combined total of 952 wickets (659 in Tests, 293 in ODIs). He is only the second Sri Lankan after Sanath Jayasuriya and 36th in the world to play in a century of Test matches for his country.

One hopes that Sri Lanka Cricket fetes him appropriately on this historic occasion. With Jayasuriya rested for the current series, Murali will become Sri Lanka's highest capped Test cricketer when he plays in the second Test against Bangladesh at Bogra starting on March 8.

Steve Waugh, one of Australia's famous cricket captains and the highest capped player in Test cricket with 168 appearances has more or less laid to rest Murali's bowling action when he stated in his autobiography 'Out of my comfort zone': "He is the David Copperfield of cricket, blurring illusion with reality, delivering with a rubber wrist and bent elbow that allows prodigious turn and lets him impart widely varying rotations on the ball.

Batting against Murali is the ultimate challenge, with the ball reaching you a split second later than you envisaged, as if he's bowled two balls and you needed to focus on the second one. He controls the ball as if it is attached to a string, enticing then withdrawing, probing before striking, each delivery a mini-battle for the batsman to overcome.

Murali possesses a very even temperament and a cool clinical demeanour that belies the infectious smile and grotesque facial contortions he unknowingly manufactures at the point of delivery.

He is also focussed and driven, always looking to extend his repertoire - which eventually included his own invention, the 'Doosra', a ball that defies convention and turns from leg to off even though out of the hand it looks like a conventional off-break.

In the end, one can only marvel at his unsurpassed record, his ability to adapt and his pride in playing for his country, which almost single-handedly keeps them a competitive unit. He is great for world cricket. And a better human being you would struggle to find." Need we say more?