Murali poised for greatness, unless he breaks down

The elements were more favourable when he bagged his 350th, 400th and 450th wickets — they were at homes venues. In August 2001 he bagged Wicket 350, Indian off-spin rival Harbhajan Singh at the Sinhalese Sports Club; quite a coincidence too as he rattled the Indian psyche with a spell of tight, disciplined bowling. That the victim was Bajji is one of those fascinating quirks of history.

It was at Galle where he nabbed wicket 400 — Zimbabwe tailender Henry Olonga — a year and 18 Tests after the Kingsmead game. An interesting collection of trophies on his roll of honour.

This week, amid the lush hills surrounding the ancient mountain kingdom of Kandy, where he was born and raised, they flocked into Asgiriya to see him grab his 450th Test wicket in his 80th game and become the third-highest wicket-taker in Test history. On a pitch where he worked some magic to take 5-49, New Zealand’s Darrel Tuffey, a lanky opening bowler who has improved remarkably since his last visit here, presented him with his prize.

It was his 37th five-wicket haul, surpassing Sir Richard Hadlee’s record. Sure there was the big grin and the handshakes but it failed to match the earlier events and that is a bit of a surprise.

All the more puzzling was Hashan Tillekeratne’s interpretation of how to handle affairs. Here was the world’s number one off-spinner tying up one end and the Sri Lanka captain, instead of pressurising the Kiwis, allowing them to build a total and at the same time, eat up valuable overs. All so much an elementary blunder: giving away soft singles and twos and failing to attack by clustering fieldsmen around the bat.

Any of the great captains would soon work out a way to attack the batsmen by using the Kandy Wizard’s unnatural ability to spin the ball with his wrist and the way he has developed any variety of deliveries. The one which goes straight on is his more dangerous delivery. It is interesting watching him lure batsmen to their downfall. Murali was all too eager to achieve the psychological high ground and his dismissal of Mathew Sinclair was an example of cunning and a plan which wrecked the Kiwis top-order.

It has been argued that he would have taken his 500th wicket by now if umpires were to police the LBW law the way they should with an off-spinner instead of looking at his bowling as he was some sideshow freak. He certainly started a new trend in off-spin bowling: someone who attacks, as does the leg-spinner, than turn to defensive tactics which has often been the lot of left-arm and off-spin bowlers.

Sure he was hurt and disappointed he was called in Australia and the taunts which still come from the nation of the World Cup champions.

Perhaps it is because they view it from a point of strength that it is easy to criticise something that is not identifiable; all part of the chauvinistic Oz makeup. And Murali is not the only bowler Darrel Hair called in a Test for throwing; Zimbabwe’s Grant Flower copped it in Bulawayo in September 2000 in the series against New Zealand.

At least Murali had the protective Sri Lankan team to protect him at the time of the throwing incident in late December 1995. And when Ross Emerson in Adelaide nailed him again in January 1999, Arjuna Ranatunga turned the episode into a personal vendetta when hauled before the disciplinary hearing over his reaction to Emerson’s calling of the spinner. It’s difficult, though, to compare Murali with the top off-spinners of earlier eras. Pitch and climatic conditions have differed over the decades as has protection of surfaces against the weather. England’s great spinner of the 1950s Jim Laker had wet surfaces on which to trap batsmen, though it was a dust bowl which saw him take his record 19 Test wickets against the Australians in 1956.

From different eras John Mortimer and John Emburey were in the defensive mould as bowlers as were, for different reasons, South Africa’s Hugh Tayfield and Srinivas Venkataraghavan.

They had to anchor the bowling attack, Venkat being the fourth spinner in a squad containing the enigmatic E A S Prasanna.

What links Murali and Prasanna is that both gave the ball flight and gained sharp turn which needed sure swift footwork to combat. Barry Richards and Ian Chappell had a higher regard for Prasanna’s ability than they did for say Venkat or even Australian Greg Matthews.

There was also Lance Gibbs, the second bowler to take 300 Test wickets and who held the record of most Test wickets for more than a decade.

A tall man with long, strong fingers who bowled in an attack which contained Wes Hall, Gary Sobers and Charlie Griffith, Gibbs at least had quality support although he’d probably played a series too many when he went to India with the idea of overtaking Fred Trueman’s record of 304 wickets.

Murali is unique and not a freak and as a bowler at least has support from the seam and swing bowler Chaminda Vaas; yet in the scheme of today’s competitive world, his fitness is creating a problem. There is a serious worry that unless looked after with care and attention, the spinner’s physical condition is not going to stand the strain of bowling between 25 and 30 overs a day.