Australian cricket chief hails Murali

8220;I don8217;t think it8217;s appropriate to criticise,8221; Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland told a news conference.

8220;I think at a time like this we should be lauding the great feats of Muttiah Muralitharan and the fact that he8217;s broken the record and shown incredible performances over a long period of time to be the number one wicket taker in Test history.8221;

Sutherland noted that Warne did not be grudge Muralitharan the record and said the Australian8217;s demotion to No.2 on the all-time list did not detract from his success.

8220;I don8217;t think it8217;s appropriate to compare, we8217;re talking about two of the great bowlers of all time,8221; he said.

8220;Murali is now the number one but that doesn8217;t in any way diminish the achievements of Shane Warne and what he did.

8220;Shane had a fantastic career that was in some ways cut short in terms of the number of matches he played.8221;