Cheerful Lankan cricketers arrive in Melbourne:

Flame of 1995 acrimony at MCG still burning

Elmo Rodrigopulle reporting from Australia

In this season of cheer and goodwill a cheerful set of Sri Lankan cricketers led by Captain Mahela Jayawardene arrived in Melbourne, vowing to play the better cricket in the Boxing Day Test than they did in Hobart.

The Sri Lankan cricketers and the many thousands of Sri Lankans living in Melbourne will never forget the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the incident that took place at the centre in 1995.

Sri Lanka was playing a Boxing Day Test there for the first time and when the game was in progress, from out of the blues came the call ‘NO BALL’ from umpire Darrel Hair when Mutiah Muralitharan was bowling.

Something wrong

That call from Hair shocked the Sri Lankans and shook the cricket world. Obviously Umpire Hair saw something wrong with the bowler’s action and called ‘NO BALL’ indicating that Muralitharan was throwing and not bowling legitimately.

When Hair called the bowler the first time, it was first thought that the call was for the bowler over-stepping and bowling a no ball. But it did not take long for it to dawn on everyone, that Muralitharan was called for throwing.

That was a sad day for Sri Lanka cricket. It lit the fuse for acrimony between the two teams and ever since when Sri Lanka play Australia it has been acrimonious and it is not going to be any different this time round.

The calling of Muralitharan by Hair led to a bit of hilarity with Sri Lankan cricket fans coining the now famous – ‘Hair or no hair, Murali’s balls are fair’ and many more.

Fiery situation

Then again in 1999, Umpire Ross Emerson called Muralitharan in a limited-over game when Sri Lanka was playing in Adelaide and it was another fiery situation with skipper Arjuna Ranatunga threatening to take the team off the field.

Ranatunga who stood firmly by his bowler engaged in a finger wagging spat with Emerson and when threats were made to ban Ranatunga from the game, timely action by the then Chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket Thilanga Sumathipala, who requested Sri Lanka’s cricket representative Dr.Quintus de Zilwa to get the best lawyers going in Australia saved Ranatunga.

Outside venues

When the inquiry was on in Adelaide and then in Perth where Ranatunga was cleared, cheer leaders Lionel ‘the legend’, Sadhatissa and the writer who was covering the tour for the ‘Daily News’ and ‘Sunday Observer’, along with some of the Lankans domiciled in Adelaide and Perth carried placards that read – ‘Arjuna hero, Emerson zero’ and many others, outside the venues.

Since these incidents the cricket has never been the same again between these two teams and now with the ball-tampering allegations flame in Hobart still lighting, the Test on Boxing Day is going to be a sizzler.

Melbourne, Thursday.