Warne said-Murali's record will stand forever

Australian spin wizard Shane Warne feels that his greatest rival Muttiah  Muralitharan's world record of almost 800 Test wickets will never be beaten.

Warne admitted that he had a few problems over the legality of Muralitharan's controversial action, but said that the Sri Lankan was one of the game's great competitors.

Warne retired with 708 Test wickets and Murali, with 792 and one more match against India, has a chance to finish with 800 wickets.

Warne feels that Murali's record will stand forever.

"I don't think it will ever be broken. Even though so much more Test cricket is played these days, I think Murali's record will stand for a long, long time and probably forever," Warne was quoted as saying by the Herald Sun.

"You just have to work it out by numbers - for that record to be broken someone has to play 140-150 Tests and take 5-6 wickets a Test. That will take some doing."

Warne said that it was "unfortunate" the Sri Lankan had "always been dogged by drama" over his rubber-wristed action.

Warne also felt that Muralitharan was never a chucker.

"Murali's action has been passed by scientific tests... I always thought it was probably legitimate," he said.

"But because of the way he bowled, I was worried that young spinners would try to copy his action and end up bowling illegally."

Warne feels cricket will lose one of its great competitors.

"Murali simply loved bowling - he loved a challenge (and) was fantastic for the game. Sometimes he would pick my brain about different things and, although we always tried to outdo each other, we always got on well," he said.