Muttiah Muralitharan has returned to Sri Lanka after his second season inLancashire with a point to prove

Charlie Austin24-Jul-2001Muttiah Muralitharan has returned to Sri Lanka after his second season inLancashire with a point to prove. Doubts have been raised by a decliningstrike rate and there is a young pretender stalking his crown as the bestoff spinner in the world.Indeed, Murali’s duel with Indian off spinner Harbhajan Singh is one of themost keenly anticipated aspects of India’s seven-week tour of Sri Lanka. Sofar, honours remain even – Singh threw the Sri Lankan innings into a spinafter a solid start whilst Muralitharan throttled the Indian batsmen in theclosing stages of Sunday’s gripping clash.Harbhajan Singh
©AFPThe 20-year-old Singh shot into the headlines during Australia’s tour ofIndia when he spun the home side towards a Test series victory with record32 wickets, including a memorable hat trick in the second Test at Kolkata.The aggressive off spinner from Jullunder may have a long way to go beforehe can claim Muralitharan’s world off spinning crown, but he has made anencouraging start in his 13 Test career, taking 66 wickets at an impressiverate of a wicket every 60 balls.In comparison, Murali, now 29 years old, was the second fastest ever to the300 Test wicket mark after Dennis Lillie, has taken 317 wickets in 62 Testsand boasts a career strike rate of a wicket every nine overs.Some argue though that Murali’s lethal powers are waning as fast as Singh’sstar is rising. During England’s tour of Sri Lanka his strike rate plummetedto a wicket every 17 overs.Murali though is quick to defend his reputation: “I don’t think that 14wickets in a three-Test series is a poor performance. It is wrong for peopleto think that I will take 25 wickets every series. Nobody in the world canperform like that.”People should not only expect me to take the wickets,” he said. “We havefour or five bowlers and they also have a job to do. We all have tocontribute to win matches.”Look at Australia – they have four good bowlers, who contribute in each andevery match and that is why they are the best side in the world at themoment.”If people think that I an going to take 25 wickets every series then I willtake over 800 Test wickets in my career and that’s not going to happen.”Then in England, where he was playing his second season for Lancashire, thewickets failed to tumble with frequency of his first, when he grabbed anastonishing 66 from just nine games.This time he took 44 in his six games, which would be excellent for mostmortals, but seemed strangely under par for Murali, who bowled an average of74 overs per game.He feels that the improved standard of first-class cricket in England madeit hard to repeat the astonishing exploits of his first season: “They havenow spilt the championship into two divisions and the sides in the firstdivision are getting stronger and stronger with more competition.”The wickets were also a little bit wetter than on my last visit and theconditions were more suited to the seam bowlers,” he said. “Consideringthat, I thought I bowled quite well.”It is clearly premature to right Murali off. Right throughout his career hehas shown an appetite for overcoming adversity.In fact he started his school career as a wayward medium pace bowler, whoonly started to bowl spin when his coach, Sunil Fernando, pulled him to theside and gently pointed out that his medium pace was not going secure him aplace in the team.He accepted Fernando’s advice and quickly established himself a slot in theUnder 15 side, as a spinning all rounder. Soon he was in St Anthony’sCollege First XI and claimed a countrywide record of 100 wickets inconsecutive seasons.St Anthony’s College was a private school and his father Muttiah Sinnasamywas a wealthy confectioner, but life was no breeze and his progression intothe national team was by no means assured after his schoolboy heroics.Cricket was still dominated by the Colombo schools and selection wassometimes a fickle process. This situation was worsened by the fact thatMurali is a hill country Tamil and thus positioned at the lower rungs ofColombo’s elite. It turns out that he was simply too good and too determinedto be ignored for long, even if his early days in the national team were notprejudice free.Murali the master spinner
©CricInfoPerhaps his greatest challenge, however, was when Darrel Hair decided toplay God in the 1995 Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. Cruelly barracked by thesections of the public throughout that tour, the mob eventually persuadedHair to no ball the off spinner for throwing. Ross Emerson followed shortlyafter in a one-day game.Murali returned to Sri Lanka distraught, but determined. According toPrabagaran, his youngest brother: “When Murali returned from Australia hewas determined not to give in. I remember him saying that if he didn’t passthe tests then he would bowl leg spin. He honestly believed it would onlytake him only three weeks to get back in the side.”In the end he passed the Tests and was cleared by the ICC. He had had anundiagnosed physical deformity in his right elbow since birth and thatprevented him from straightening his arm. His rubber like wrist wasfreakish, but not illegal, and Murali moved on a stronger player.Having overcome so many obstacles en route to his modern day success, a dipin his strike rate is unlikely to mark the beginning of the end. He remainstremendously fit despite an overbearing workload and boyishly keen – alwaysthe first to practice and last to leave.Nevertheless, he has to adapt to the new techniques employed successfully byEngland’s stubborn batsmen. They opted for a simple policy of ‘kick him orhit him,’ but actually much more of the former. Stretching their front padoutside the line of off stump, whilst craftily keeping the bat behind thepad, they managed to keep him out, even if they did benefit from a strictinterpretation of the lbw rule by the umpires.He admits to being frustrated by the killjoy tactics, but rightly points outthat there is more to cricket than survival: “What can you do? You just haveto keep bowling. They can’t keep padding away all the time, as you have toscore runs as well.”His duel with the Indian batsmen is a mouth-watering prospect. They are nothandicapped by the cloddish footwork of the England and thus have greaterattacking options at their disposal. Whether they have the courage to usethem remains to be seen.Murali plays down the duel with Harbhajan Singh, simply saying: “There is nocompetition. If he bowls well he will take wickets and if I bowl well I willdo the same.” Nevertheless, during the time of the Australian tour of Indiahe was ribbed gently by his colleagues that Singh was pinching his mantle.Murali has too much pride not to be spurred on by the competition.In the end, one suspects that they will both succeed, as they are clearlyhead and shoulders above their colleagues. The big question will be, whichbatsmen cope best with the finger spinning assassins, and that will decidethe Test series, if not the Coca Cola Cup.