He's been embroiled in controversies... none of which were of his making. He was called for 'chucking' a number of times in his career. But how could he help it? It was a physical / biological problem that he could do nothing about. It was incurable. He was just a lover of the game who wanted to serve the game in his country to the best of his abilities.
So he went on. He faced all the criticism and never gave up... kept on bowling day in and day out... carrying the burden of being the lynch pin of Sri Lankan cricket. The results are there for everyone to see: highest number of wickets in Tests and ODIs, highest number of 5-fors and 10-fors, and numerous matches won for his team.
For me, Murali will always be a legend! I am glad to see that he will be playing his last Test match against India. He's had some extremely absorbing duels with Indians over the last many years... and it would be a perfect way to sign off with another one!
3 comments:
A Sri Lankan team without Murali will be a strange thing indeed. Glad he'll be there in the World Cup, but still...:(
Sunny, it's not as if we have never seen Sri Lanka without Murali. They have played without him quite often recently. But we have always known that this champion is not done yet... he'll be there again to contribute more to the game.
That's not the case now! With the end of the First Test against India, it will end an era... especially in Sri Lankan cricket - the Era of Muttiah Muralitharan!
To get about 800 test wickets is a amazing achievement and I don't see anyone breaking that record.
If I have to pick an all time world team he would be one of the first names on my team sheet as I won't like to lose out on the most effective spinner of all time!
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