Murali ends his career with the ultimate victory

WHILE Australia's cricket focus might be on how Ricky Ponting tries to prove the critics wrong after batting first at Headingley, world cricket's celebration this week must surely be about how Muthiah Muralidaran's Test career finale ended in such glorious triumph for both him and Sri Lanka in Galle.

Thursday's events had two interesting sides to them: not only did the magician achieve the incredible 800-wicket feat with the last victim available to him for the match, but India was yet again proven to be a flawed power. Here was the former minnow bringing the colossus to its knees.

Sri Lankan cricket has achieved remarkable things over the years. Initially regarded as a disparate collection of wristy batsmen and handy spin bowlers, Sri Lanka has matured into one of the most competitive teams in the world in all forms of the game. Men of the calibre of Aravinda De Silva, Arjuna Ranatunga, Kumar Sangakarra and Mahela Jayawardana have led the way and others have followed. A World Cup was won, and respect has been earned.

There have been many obstacles along the way, including civil war and the Tsunami. Two years ago members of the touring team were shot while heading to a game in Pakistan. Yet still Sri Lankan resolve has never been broken.

Muralidaran has, of course, been the beacon throughout: for 18 years he has beguiled and bewildered batsmen the world over, rising from his humble beginnings in Kandy to rival Shane Warne as the greatest spinner we've ever seen. His big-turning off-spinner and unique doosra made him as watchable as Warne, and, to batsmen, no doubt as confusing.

And he has had plenty to overcome, not the least of which has been Western hostility to the rule changes that were implemented as a result of his and others' actions. He subjected himself to an endless round of tests that surely would have broken a lesser man, but still the cynics were unhappy. Throughout it all he maintained his dignity, never at any stage becoming bitter towards those who tried to bring him down. He soldiered on and continued to collect wickets in unbelievable quantities, acknowledging his successes with a shy grin rather than the raucous celebrations so often seen from others.

During the past year or two his total dominance over batsmen began to wane; injuries became more frequent, and he was having to work a lot harder for his wickets as batsmen became more adept at playing him. All of which would have faded into insignificance in his hour of greatest joy on Thursday, as the Indian tail succumbed and his opening batsmen knocked off the required runs for victory.

Yet again India has been shown to be incapable of getting its act together on a consistent basis. Perceptions of on-field dominance are proving to be well off the mark - sometimes financial clout and depth of playing resources count for nothing if they aren't properly harnessed.

Indian reputations have been inflated by the wrong criteria and one suspects some players have become soft. The most memorable image from the recent World Twenty20 competition in the West Indies was of the Indian players in their dugout as they collapsed to 5-24 against Australia's pace. The likes of Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina sat humiliated and beaten just weeks after apparently ruling the world in the Indian Premier League.

Great men and competitors like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Harbhajan Singh will ensure that Indian cricket never plummets to the depths, and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is a terrific leader.

But maybe it's time for the younger brigade to take a leaf out of Muralidaran's and Sri Lanka's book and realise that hard work and the humble approach are often a recipe for success.

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Murali ends his career with the ultimate victory

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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.

Warne said-Murali's record will stand forever

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Murali's unbridled hunger for Test wickets

It looked like a Test match that would attract only cursory interest in a calendar so bogged down with international fixtures.

But now Sri Lanka's match against India in Galle starting on 18 July will be a very special one, bringing to an end the phenomenal Test career of one of the finest bowlers the game has seen.

Should Muttiah Muralitharan take eight wickets in the match - and for a player with his record it is by no means a distant prospect - he will end with an extraordinary haul of 800 wickets.

With the volume of Test cricket set to drop in the coming years, it is almost unthinkable that anyone will get close to that mark ever again.

Although the left-arm swing bowler Chaminda Vaas gave him valuable support for a while, for long periods of many Test matches Muralitharan carried the Sri Lankan attack on his own two shoulders.

At times, rumours were happily allowed to circulate by Muralitharan himself that the master off-spinner had developed a new delivery, one that this time no opposition batsman would be able to counter.

Muralitharan dismissing Michael Vaughan on England's 2007-08 tour of Sri Lanka

An exasperated Nasser Hussain, the former England captain, said before one series that he would no longer worry about Murali's variations because there was only a finite number of directions he could turn the ball.

But when I interviewed another former England skipper, Alec Stewart, a few hours after news of Muralitharan's Test retirement had been broken by BBC Sinhala, the former Surrey man said the key issue was the amount of spin imparted.

"I could see which way the ball was spinning in the air, but you never knew how much it was going to turn; it could be a few inches or it could be a few feet," said Stewart.

"Beyond that, there was always change of pace, degree of flight, and angle of delivery to consider as well. All the problems you normally face from a regular spinner are just exaggerated because of the amount of spin he can impart on the ball.

"Anyone who can spin the ball as much as he could - and he obviously spun it more than anyone else who has played the game - is going to take wickets.

"In a Test match, he could bowl half the overs in the day, and was always developing his doosra [the ball that turns the "wrong way", away from the right-hander].

"He performed at the highest level for a long, long time. He would get tired, because it's hard work, but Sri Lanka built their bowling attack around him and with the stack of overs that he bowled there came a stack of wickets.

"There will always be a question mark about his action. Some people say he bowls it, others say that what he does is illegal. But you can't take away what he has achieved."

The accusations of illegal "chucking" that have dogged Muralitharan will never vanish, forming an indelible blot on his career.

But the man himself is such a pleasure to talk to, such a joy to see in action, and such an unbridled entertainer that it seems perverse to attach any notion of skulduggery to what he has done.

Without getting immersed in the technicalities, Muralitharan's right arm has a congenital defect which means that it appears to bend more than it actually does when he bowls.

He has been filmed bowling in the nets with a brace strapped to his arm that allows for virtually no elbow flex.

It is not as though others are untouchable. When the International Cricket Council examined video footage of bowlers during the 2004 Champions Trophy they found that 99% of bowlers flexed their elbows to some extent.

From that point on, it raised the permitted thresh-hold to 15 degrees of elbow bend, and since then the subject has been less of a concern to players and administrators.

Replacing Muralitharan, who was also one of the most carefree and uncomplicated tail-end sloggers, a safe catcher in the deep and a deceptively dangerous fielder close in, will be difficult for Sri Lanka.

His obvious successor appears to be Ajantha Mendis, a 25-year-old with more variety than Muralitharan if not the same lavish turn. But his career has slowed after a dramatically effective first year in the international game.

We are unlikely to see anyone with such an extraordinary hunger for Test wickets ever again. Muralitharan, the attack dog of spin bowlers, was never content to bide his time and wait for errors.

Fleeting appearances in the shorter formats will continue. He is likely to bow out of one-day internationals after next year's World Cup, and may have a season or two left in the Indian Premier League.

But the sight of him relentlessly whirring away for over after over, hour by hour, in Test matches will 

Murali's unbridled hunger for Test wickets

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