Minutes after he had raised some eyebrows in front of the cameras by declaring that he was eyeing one more World Cup, Muttiah Muralitharan walked out of the room, only to run into a photographer with a strange request.“What? You want to photograph my hand?” asked an amused Murali. Then, he thrust out his right arm, palm down, a knot of lucky charms covering the wrist that might just shut the door on India’s World Cup two days from now.“We are ready for Bangladesh, we are ready for India. Yes, India have some big players but it all depends on how well they click together on Friday. But we are prepared,” he then told this paper.Rested along with left-arm swing veteran Chaminda Vaas for the recent four-match series against India, Murali said that the 1-2 verdict last month would have no bearing on Friday’s match. “That was more of a preparation for us. This is the World Cup. It’s completely different,” said the man who started off as a medium-pacer, switched to off-spin at 13 and now has an astonishing 434 wickets from 288 ODIs in that kitbag.Lanka, first, have to beat Bangladesh tomorrow, but Murali knows it will still boil down to that one match against India. “We will worry about the net run rates after that,” he said.At the press conference, Murali cranked up the pressure on India, saying this team was quite similar to the one that surged ahead from nowhere to win the trophy in 1996. “When we were playing in 1996, it was a great experience for us, and we were (a combination of) young and experienced players, which is the same as this one. Hopefully, this team can also do the same thing,” said Murali, adding, “We have all come here to win the World Cup, not give others a chance. That’s the way we want to play.”But then, what about the Champions Trophy flop five months ago, when his side was tagged as one of the favourites? “Newspapers can put favourites, but the game is different. Everyone knows that until you bowl the last ball, it’s not over. In one-dayers, any team can beat any other team, 15 overs can change the game,” he said.Murali then spun out a few interesting lines on that little twist in tomorrow’s match against Bangladesh, coached by Lanka’s 1996 mastermind, Dav Whatmore. “He is a great coach, he has done wonders for our country. He still has managed to give a surprise to you all. So he is capable. Bangladesh has been playing Test cricket for 7-8 years and they have the experience. When we started in 1983, we won the World Cup in 13 years. So that means they (Bangladesh) are no more minnows. They haven’t delivered what they could have in the past, they might after this World Cup,” said Murali.So is this your last World Cup? “How do you know this is going to be my last World Cup? I might play in the next World Cup because I am 34 years old, 38 in another four years. Spinners can play upto 40. It depends on how my mind works, how fit I stay. I would love to play in the next World Cup because it is going to be on home soil, which means a pretty good chance for us. The last time we played on home soil, we won the World Cup.”The Lankan spearhead then wrapped it up on a strangely sentimental note. Will there ever be another Murali? “Someone will come, you never know. When I started playing cricket, nobody thought I would be the best off-spinner in the world. Somebody may come in another five years time, 10 years time, maybe next year. Somewhere, some person will come and bowl like me—or better than me.”
