Murali: The Mesmerizer

Muralitharan began cricket as a medium pace bowler before switching to off-spin when he was 14 years-old. He made his Test debut aged 20 against Australia on August 28, 1992, claiming three wickets for 141 runs.

A year later he captured his first five-wicket haul in Tests against South Africa with figures of 5-104.

Against New Zealand in 1995 his 19 wickets in Sri Lanka’s 2-1 series victory proved his match-winning qualities on any surface.

On March, 16, 1997 he became the first Sri Lankan to reach 100 Test wickets. In January 1998, he took his first 10-wicket haul against Zimbabwe in the first Test.

In August that year, Muralitharan produced career best figures of 16-220 in a one-off Test against England.

Murali, is rated the greatest Test match bowler ever by Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack in 2002.

He is the highest wicket-taker in both Test cricket and in One Day Internationals (ODIs). He took the wicket of Gautam Gambhir on February 05, 2009 in Colombo, to surpass Wasim Akram’s ODI record of 502 wickets. On March 16, 2004 he became the fastest and youngest bowler to reach 500 wickets during the second Test against Australia in Kandy. Muralitharan became the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket when he overtook the previous record-holder Shane Warne on December 03, 2007 in the longer version of the game. Muralitharan had previously held the record when he surpassed Courtney Walsh’s 519 wickets in 2004. But he suffered a shoulder injury later that year and was then overtaken by Warne.

Averaging over six wickets per Test, Muralitharan is the most successful bowlers in the game.

Muralitharan’s career has been beset with controversy; his bowling action called into question on a number of occasions by umpires and sections of the cricket community. After biomechanical analysis in non-match conditions, Muralitharan’s action was cleared by the International Cricket Council, first in 1996 and again in 1999. The legality of his doosra was first called into question in 2004.

This delivery was found to exceed the ICC elbow extension limit by nine degrees, five degrees being the limit for spinners at that time. Based on official studies into bowling actions, which revealed that 99% of all bowlers exceed the elbow flexion limits, ICC revised the limits applying to all bowlers in 2005. Muralitharan’s doosra falls within the revised limits.

Never before in the history of sport has one man’s elbow been the centre of so much controversy. But Muttiah Muralitharan is a certified cricket legend.

Murali was born with a deformed elbow, which means he can’t straighten his arm, no matter how hard he tries.

It’s even been scientifically proven by some clever people in Perth, Australia.

Because of his deformity, Murali bowls differently to your average off-spinner.

Rather than use his fingers to generate the spin, he uses his entire body to get that extra “zip”. Just watch his face every time he delivers a ball, that’s the kind of expression you’d expect to see on the face of a fast bowler tearing down the wicket at 90mph. Most of Murali’s work is done in the shoulders, which, because of the unusual angle of his elbows, are more flexible than most bowlers’.

Like his Test wicket-taking rival Shane Warne, Murali mixes up his deliveries to keep the batsmen second guessing, changing the flight, pace and spin almost every delivery.

And then there’s his control - he’s virtually impossible to smash out of the Sri Lankan attack because he has such amazing control over his line and length.

Recently Murali has developed a ball called the “doosra” which is the off-spinner’s version of the googly.

But because of questions about his action when he delivers this ball, he has been asked not to bowl it in Test or one-day games by the ICC, the body which looks after world cricket.

Despite the doubts, Murali kept on doing what he did so brilliantly,taking wickets and breaking records.

Muttiah Muralitharan, announced his retirement from Test Cricket after the first Test against India at Galle which began yesterday.