Too much advice has Murali in a spin

No one, though, dares mention ‘dart thrower’ too loudly in the precincts of leafy Maitland Place, where Sri Lanka Cricket have their offices. Earlier in the week, SLC asked the International Cricket Council to amend the restrictions on the Kandy-born spinner so that he can bowl the doosra without question. Two days later, former Australian off-spinner Peter Taylor suggests it is time for the ICC to act tough and display a little more spine by rejecting SLC’s appeal.

He argues a convincing case; just as convincing as have the so-called experts over what is a decidedly messy issue and has been blown from a storm in a tea cup to a frenzied, sensational ‘‘them against us’’ situation. There is no in-between. It smacks of the sort of behaviour that displays Sri Lanka’s inferiority complex and a chip on the shoulder the size of the famed millennium old Fortress Sigiriya, that great slab of stone sticking like a squat thumb out of the Dambulla Plains.

One of several stories doing the rounds of Colombo these days is that in Australia they don’t like Murali because he is Sri Lankan and therefore brown-skinned where Warne is an Aussie and therefore white. Australian Prime Minister John Howard thrust his own clumsy foot into his mouth with the ‘‘chucker’’ comment about the doosra. The Colombo take on this is that Howard is upset because Murali is from tiny Sri Lanka and beat the big Australian Warne to breaking Courtney Walsh’s record. In what is now an age hopefully, of enlightened egalitarianism, this hyperbole is the type of ethnic sideshow that should have been buried along with the ashes of the Raj. It also displays an inadequacy you might find in a three-year-old who, having discovered the magic of being able to draw, throws a tantrum when he starts drawing on the wall and the crayons have been removed from the child by a reproving parent.

So where does Muralitharan fit into this daily media charade? He is in England looking at his options and issues statements through his lawyer. He is an effusive sort, likes a joke, plays pranks in the dressing room — and, when the opportunity presents itself, enjoys dating pretty flight attendants. He also has a ready smile and is generally a gentle type.

Murali comes from a solid background of Sri Lankan Tamil stock; his family own a prosperous bakery in Kandy and the spinner, at college, was an above average rugby union player and scholar. In cricket, he at first was a seamer before taking to spin bowling.

He is a hard-working bowler. On any given day during a season he will attend a couple of hours at the Sri Lankan team’s nets and then head for the Tamil Union Club in Colombo 8, where he will spend another couple of hours bowling to teammates at P Saravanamuttu (or P Sara as some prefer).

There has been admiration for the Sri Lanka officials who have stood with him on the issue of his action and former captain Arjuna Ranatunga, whom he will contact from time to time to ask his advice. Just who is advising him on the Australian tour issue is unclear. But there are decidedly mixed and curiously arcane signals emerging from his camp.

Sure, the Sri Lankan team would like him in Australia for the two Tests next month. But they also indicate they would not hold it against him if he decided not to go. His visit to England has been designed to take him out of the pressure zone to give him time to think. The best advice so far has come from Warne and that is to forget the Howard and doosra issues and to tour Australia. It is not a bad call. Hopefully he will heed Warne’s opinion.

Certainly there are bigger issues. One is the Asian limited-overs championship which starts in Sri Lanka next month and a looming battle with Sachin Tendulkar, whom Murali has not bowled to in years.