800 DECLARED

This was possibly the last day before Muttiah Muralitharans craft would become part of folklore. People will remember his big off-break...

This was possibly the last day before Muttiah Muralitharans craft would become part of folklore. People will remember his big off-break as a school boy yet will exaggerate a wee bit when they talk about the turn. His days at the St Antony8217;s College,Kandy,and the Tamil Union Cricket Club in Colombo will be embellished with stories of how senior batsmen were bowled through the gate.

Tales about his big leg-break too bowled only to make a point will be passed on. When he felt his off-break wasn8217;t giving him the recognition he deserved,Murali turned to leg-breaks. He delivered leg-breaks in practice games to stake claim in the side as Ruwan Kalpage,the senior off-spinner,was playing more often than him. Aficionados will spend evenings discussing his gentle swinging medium-pace bowling.

Budding spinners will look at his 800 wickets in Tests and rub their eyes in disbelief in the years to come. Many have tried to imitate his action,but not with any sort of success. Coaches have said in one voice that they haven8217;t spotted a bowler who can turn the ball as much as Muralitharan and at the same time be accurate.

Chandika Hathurusinghe was the champion off-spinners first captain at the Tamil Union Cricket Club in Colombo. He is a legend now, Hathurusinghe said. However,Muralis cult-like status has been in the making since in his teenage years. When he came from Kandy to Colombo to play for the first time Murali had already made a name for himself. He was special. Nothing like anyone had been seen before, Hathurusinghe recalled.

People will call to mind Muralitharans competitive streak. Most of the players at Tamil Union CC had day jobs. Muralitharan wasnt employed at that time,so he would spend hours on end training in the nets. When we reached around 4 pm he would have finished at least two hours of training. Yet he would be raring to have a go at us. He never liked to lose,whether it was a game of rugby or snooker. He would be close to tears when we lost, Hathurusinghe added.

Records he established in school cricket will be the benchmark for budding spinners. I maintain till this day that he is a unique bowler. In an Under-17 game he took seven wickets with his leg-spin. He took over two hundred wickets in two seasons of school cricket two decades ago. Nobody has got close to that mark yet. Two-day games used to finish in one-and-a-half days because Muralitharan would run through sides. His school and Test record will stand the test time. Many young cricketers say they want to become like Muralitharan,but I tell them it is probably impossible, Sunil Fernando,the coach who coaxed Muralitharan to take up off-spin,said.

The Sri Lankan dressing room will be a much quieter place from the second Test in Colombo. Arjuna Ranatunga was Muralitharans first skipper at the Test level. Ranatunga spoke of how Muralitharan used to be shy and quiet in the dressing room. He hardly used to talk. After he started taking wickets and toured a couple of years with the team,he gained confidence and used a talk a lot. He was always full of ideas and loved to express himself. At times in the dressing room I had to ask him to shut up.

Couldve taken 1000

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Ranatunga believes Muralitharan had it in him to reach 1000-Test wickets. It would have been something else if Murali had taken 1,000 wickets. Nobody would be able to get close to that mark. I believe if he had played less County cricket and skipped the Indian Premier League he could have gone on and on, Ranatunga said,adding that 800 itself was a rather spectacular achievement.

Shashidharan,one of Muralis three brothers,is regularly asked about his famous sibling. People want to know everything about him. Im sure to get many more calls and questions about him now that he has taken 800 wickets.