In a career of great moments, Murali says World Cup would be the best

WORLD CUP: Muttiah Muralitharan is looking at Saturday’s World Cup final against Australia as the biggest game of his career.

That’s some statement from a player who already has a World Cup title and is the leading spin bowler in the game.

Muralitharan won the 1996 championship as a young player when the country had only recently moved on from having a mostly amateur squad. It beat favorite Australia, overcoming huge odds and reinventing the one-day game in the process.

He has since become one of the most devastating bowlers in the world game, taking 23 wickets at this tournament and 674 in tests - just 34 behind the record of retired great Shane Warne.

His experience is making him savor Sri Lanka’s present campaign all the more.

“I had moments in ‘96 but I was young and didn’t know much about it and now I know about what it takes to win a World Cup,” Muralitharan said Thursday. “This may be my last World Cup, so if we can win, it’s the greatest.”

The 35-year-old Muralitharan is also closing on Wasim Akram’s record of 502 one-day wickets. But he stressed records and personal milestones weren’t his motivation.

“It’s good for the youngsters in Sri Lanka who follow cricket,” he said. “In the future we will get great players because they are watching us. It helps the whole country.”

Muralitharan, Sanath Jayasuriya and Chaminda Vaas will all play in the final in Barbados, 11 years after leading Sri Lanka to its greatest sporting triumph.

“I didn’t know much about the game,” Muralitharan said. “The captain would give me the ball and I bowled. Now, I’m experienced with 290 odd games and I know how to handle myself in tougher situations.”

Sri Lanka was a relative unknown at the 1996 tournament it co-hosted with India and Pakistan. However, it introduced a big-hitting game at a time when teams would usually start tentatively and only accelerate toward the end of the 50 overs.

Sri Lanka changed all that, taking advantage of a rule allowing only two fielders beyond the 30-yard (27-meter) circle for the first 15 overs by hitting the ball over the top.

Now, the team has a more balanced lineup with a formidable bowling lineup led by the mature Muralitharan, who has a clutch of different deliveries to bamboozle batsmen, and pace man Lasith Malinga.

Muralitharan usually comes on to pick up wickets in the middle of the innings and is notoriously difficult for bowlers to play.

Former West Indies great Viv Richards said Muralitharan was the only bowler in the current game he would fear.

“All the others would be like little kittens, but Murali would create the aggression,” Richards said. “Murali is the one I would have most fear of.”

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Friday, AP