Before paying tributes to the great Muttiah Muralitharan,first a request to those with a geometry box in hands and wearing I love Darrell Hair T-shirts. If not for the man but for the sheer weight of the numbers 800 wickets from 133 Tests in 18 years can the javelins be put away to applaud the most successful wicket-takers walk into the sunset at Galle.
Harping merely on the angle on his bent arm would see one miss the other dimensions of the fascinating story of a village boys journey through the muddy and messy extreme obstacle course. Had he been a softie,he wouldnt even have reached 100 Test wickets. Critics say he bent the rules but the more broadminded view is that Murali merely pushed the envelope. The will to succeed and the constant endeavour to improve took Murali to uncharted heights. A big off-spinner and a doosra are weapons that many around the world possess but the wiliness of Murali is a rare commodity.
Broad willows and skilful batsmen with bulging muscles were pushing the finger spinners to extinction. Batsmen stepping out of the crease and lofting the ball over the fence were a common sight for most off-spinners. But as Murali constantly rediscovered himself,there was hope for the spinners around the world.
There is an old story that Muralis mate from his early days,Chandika Hathurusinghe,loves to narrate. It shows how even when the halo of a spin legend wasnt around his head,Murali never believed in being second-best at anything he did. At the Tamil Cricket Club ground in the late 80s,Murali was seen as a yokel from Kandy by the city slickers from Colombo. After a hard net session,the boys played pool at the club house to relax and hand around.
There were smirks and snide remarks as a fumbling Murali threatened the green baize surface with his clumsy shots. But within a fortnight there was a magical transformation as Murali was beating everyone around. Hathurusinghe was later told by one of the markers at the club that Murali used to come three hours before the cricket nets commenced to master his cue skills. Murali always believed in walking the extra mile to keep a distance with failure.
His doosra discovery in the mid-90s too was one such instance since his big off-spinners were getting predictable. In years to come many of his team mates took the less-travelled path. Malinga the slinger,Mendis the carom ball specialist and Dilshan of the scoop shot fame dared to dream differently after the success of their legendary teammate.
In the last few years of his career,Murali came up with a new variation. With the umpires consistently negating his lbw appeals off the doosra from over-the-wicket,Murali went on to the other side of the stumps to cut the angle. Like was the case during the 2008 series against India,in the final Test at Galle,Muralis changed path helped him reach the 800 mark.
The Sri Lankan superstars constant ticking brain added intrigue to the game. Understanding the unseen mind-game that he constantly played with the batsmen made Test cricket an intellectual pursuit. One could never properly appreciate the work of the genius bowler merely by watching the wickets package at the end of the days play. It needed patience to uncover Murali,to get an insight into his well-laid out plans. Sprawled on the couch,legs on the table,with the television remote control in safe custody is was the only way to watch a Murali spell. His overs ended like a soap opera episode that triggered a what next? anticipation. Missing the continuity spoiled the fun. After several innocuous-looking balls,the magic moment would come and that in an instant would explain everything. The bolt-from-the-blue big off-spinner that hits the stumps explained why he had bowled the long-hop outside the off-stump earlier in the over. And it is only after Yuvraj Singh edges a just-short-of-good-length doosra to the slips that one can explain why Murali had fed him an overpitched ball before that. And,as the batsman would be walking back to the pavilion like a man who had just been conned,it was tough to feel for him since that was your moment of clarity,as you had just got an insight into the mind of the genius. All those geometry-obsessed people in Darrell Hair T-shirts should talk about the bent of his mind too.
sandeep.dwivedi@expressindia.com
