Dont write Murali off

In terms of age,the man closest to Muttiah Muralitharan,37,in the Sri Lanka tour party is the 41-year-old assistant coach Chandika Hathurusinghe.

In terms of age,the man closest to Muttiah Muralitharan,37,in the Sri Lanka tour party is the 41-year-old assistant coach Chandika Hathurusinghe. In a relatively young side,where the senior players are in their early 30s,he is among the few on back-slapping terms with the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket not just because of their proximity in age but also due to their long association.

Hathurusinghe was Muralis first captain at Colombos Tamil Union club,long before the spinner made his international debut. And after 1992,he closely observed the making of a legend first as a team mate and then from the sidelines. A day after Murali hinted that he may hang up his boots before the 2011 World Cup,Hathurusinghe acknowledged the fading prowess of a player with 17 years of international cricket behind him.

Its not too many times that Murali has gone through an innings without a success. He is growing old,and you cant expect him to take 10 wickets in a match all the time. We all have to accept that he is now 37, Haturusinghe said.

Over the years,Hathurusinghe has been in many brain-storming sessions with Murali as he has repeatedly reinvented himself during his long international journey. Last year,when India visited Sri Lanka for the three-Test series,Murali had spoken to him in detail about not getting lbw decisions because the umpires felt the ball was turning too much. Hathurusinghe said he advised him to bowl round the wicket so that the ball remained close to the stumps and the spin was subtle, and Murali ended up getting six of the 10 Indian wickets to fall in the first Test.

Referral system

Hathurusinghe,a former Lankan opener,said another problem Murali was facing,in comparison to that series,was that the ICCs referral system was not in use this time. In that series,we had the referral system. If you went round the wicket and hit the pads,the batsman was pretty much out, he said.

While the referral system has been adopted post October 1 it is in use in the ongoing Test series in Australia and New Zealand obstacles posed by the Indian broadcasters resulted in the India-Sri Lanka series sticking to the old laws.

Both Murali and mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis had benefitted greatly from the referral system last season. Several times in that series,the field umpires had failed to predict get the trajectory of the balls bowled by the two,but the third umpire had upheld numerous lbw appeals. But Hathurusinghe said,despite that,he was confident Murali would come with a variation to get over the slump. He definitely has more options than any other bowler on the park. Knowing him,he will never give up. Hes wondering what to do because he is one person who is not used to being hit all the time. You never know,he might win the game for us here in Mumbai.