Meeting a legend: Moody recalls

In Melbourne, Tom Moody remembers vividly how he was Muralitharan’s second Test victim, bowled by a delivery that “spun back five feet” to fox the Australian, signalling the arrival of a phenomenon. “I can clearly remember the ball he got me out with. It almost pitched off the strip and spun back five feet to bowl me middle-and-off while I was padding up. We thought he was a leg-spinner; his action was that unusual,” Moody said. “I always told him that I should have been his first, because the bloke he got out before me, Craig McDermott, was caught behind off the thigh pad,” he told The Age.

That was way back in 1992 and Moody returned 12 years later to coach the Sri Lankan side. Muralitharan today claimed his 709th Test wicket in the first Test against England in Kandy to break Warne’s world record for the most Test wickets.