Greats of the Game #10 Murali

Sri Lanka

Bowler

D.O.B: 17/04/1972

International Career: 1992 – 2011

“Murali – to me – is the best bowler to ever play the game” – Kumar Sangakkara

Born in Kandy, to a family who had ironically made their name in the confectionary business, Muttiah Muralitharan’s international career would be anything but a piece of cake. Bemoaned a cheat and a chucker for nigh on two decades, Murali – with deformed elbow, supple wrist and perennial wide-eyed grin – would rise above the sniping and ridicule to bowl his way into cricketing greatness.

The greatest wicket-taker in the history of the game, Murali claimed 1,347 wickets in the international arena; an astonishing 800 of these coming in Test cricket. Murali’s record in the long form averaged out to almost six victims per match, a mark that will likely never be surpassed.

Thriving all around the world, Murali rose to prominence in Australia in the summer of 1992/93. Bowling to Allan Border, the Australian captain failed to pick his 'doosra', setting a precedent that many international batters were set to follow. Though controversy over his action was brewing, Lawrence Booth observed that in this early part of his career “as the hyperbole ran deep, Murali just got on with bowling.”

Any format, anywhere in the world, Murali was a threat (Bradman Archives)

And bowl he did, flourishing under the captaincy of Arjuna Ranatunga, an initial early shyness developed into a quiet confidence; his wide-eyed approach to the wicket indicative of the delight he derived from deceiving opponents with craft and guile. A World Cup Winner in 1996 as well, Murali was growing in both confidence and prominence during a strong era of Sri Lankan cricket. Imbued with what Michael Atherton calls “a freakish brilliance,” Murali quickly became renowned for his big-spinning deliveries, fizzing the ball both ways at will. So great was the spin he could impart on a cricket ball, that Sunandan Lele contends, “he didn’t need a turning pitch, he could turn it on a glass surface.”

Murali became the first bowler to take 800 Test wickets

Perhaps a victim of his own success in the early part of his career, Murali’s hitherto inevitable rise to stardom was threatened by the natural bend of his arm. Initially called for throwing at the Boxing Day Test in 1995, the controversy reared its head again in 1998, before he was barred from bowling the formidable ‘doosra’ in 2004. Forthright that he never breached the game’s laws, Murali began a campaign to prove the legitimacy of his action – with a patience that his critics and inquisitors scarcely deserved. Before beginning his campaign – one that saw him undergo a number of humiliating exercise to analyse the flexion in his arm – there were different rules for different players; degrees of flexion varying for fast, medium and spin bowlers alike. As a result of his efforts, the rule was changed, and 15 degrees set as the maximum for all bowlers.

“I challenged the system,” he recalls.

Re-inventing spin bowling, and now with conjecture and confusion mostly behind him – save for the voices of those with small minds and big opinions – Murali went on to enrich world cricket. In 2006, he was named Wisden Leading Cricket of the Year after a remarkable twelve months. While most of the world fixed its attention on The Ashes, Murali claimed 90 wickets from 11 Tests, including ten wickets in each of four consecutive matches. More than his numbers, however, by this stage Murali had established himself as the backbone of Sri-Lankan cricket; Simon Barnes asserting that he had “given the international game another team to be reckoned with.”

A truly iconic action, Murali was a whir of arms and wide-eyed at the wicket

A unifying force for Sri-Lanka, Murali was – for the better part of his career – the only Tamil in the Sri-Lankan team during a period of ethnic conflict and uncertainty. Through his cricketing genius and pervasive affability, he was able to break down barriers and become a hero to the whole of the island nation; an enduring legacy for a man who made a career of simplifying the ostensibly complex.

Transforming profound physical disadvantage into one of cricket’s most potent weapons, Murali became cricket’s most successful bowler. He arguably became its most important player, too, as his record breaking performances and attendant controversies changed the laws of the game for good.

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