Test cricket’s highest wicket-taker is far from finished, and it boggles the mind to imagine just what kind of numbers he will stack up by the time he is over and done with tormenting batsmen.
There is much to admire about the 35-year-old from Kandy, a soft-spoken man with a ready smile and hardly an unkind word about anyone. He has gone about his business with extraordinarily little fuss, wearing the special talent bestowed upon him with exceptional grace. Neither in isolated moments of despair or during the more frequent trysts with delight has he lost poise or equanimity. Murali is a true champion -- humble and modest -- and he will be remembered fondly as much for his impeccable behaviour as his exceptional tricks with the cricket ball.
The cynics might snigger at the irony of a ‘straighter’ one taking him past Shane Warne’s erstwhile record of 708 Test wickets, because it is the straightening of his arm that has caused such consternation and debate across the world for the better part of a decade now. Murali’s isn’t the most conventional of actions, but it has been deemed legal by the International Cricket Council and therefore, the debate must end there. Continued nit-picking and condemnation of his action will perforce have to be construed as no more than a cheap shot at trying to stay in the limelight, and bask in the perverse pleasure of taking pot-shots at a genuine superstar.
Muralitharan’s exploits on the cricket field have been phenomenal. The fizzing, twirling, massively turning off-spinner, the ‘doosra’ which he has totally mastered -- they are his weapons of mass destruction. The whirling dervish with a heart of gold has gone about his business uncomplainingly, never turning an over down, never flinching at the prospect of another long day in office, never disappointing a captain through lack of effort and commitment.
From an uni-dimensional spinner who possessed a huge off-spinner and nothing else, thereby making for good viewing but reducing his efficiency because of his predictability, Muralitharan has evolved into a more rounded bowler with a big bag of tricks. Without sacrificing his control over line and length, he has expanded his repertoire manifold. It is fascinating to watch him bowl now as he effortlessly controls the amount of turn without any discernible change in action. As it is, he makes for a difficult proposition, all hands and wrist and eyes at the time of delivery. Given the immense variations that he brings into play at the drop of a hat, he is one bowler batsmen can never ever feel at ease against, even for a moment. Much has been made of Muralitharan’s success at home, and the disparity in numbers between home and away Tests. That is no more than our essential negative bone making its appearance. We have always delighted in pulling our heroes down.
Muralitharan is as much a hero as anyone else, so why should he be the exception then?!
Maybe, we can instead focus on how, for the longest of whiles, Murali has shouldered the Sri Lankan bowling attack almost entirely on his own.
On how, Chaminda Vaas apart, he has had no meaningful support until the last couple of years or so. On how, against set batsmen overseas on unresponsive tracks even on day one of a Test match, he has plotted and schemed, plugged away and persevered, always with a smile and without a furrowed brow. Quite obviously, in the familiar environs of home, he will be a more potent force than on tracks outside the sub-continent. But hey, didn’t the leg-spinner non-pareil, Warne himself, struggle to impose himself on the supposed ‘square turners’ in India?! Muralitharan’s lot, not unlike his good friend and current Indian captain Anil Kumble, is that he has to contend with as many critics within as outside. Both men have, almost miraculously, discovered a medium that allows them to ignore such motivated rantings and go about their job, seemingly unaffected.
Both are sensitive enough not to be touched by continuous carping; both are also intelligent enough to realise that the best way to shut mouths up is not by climbing rooftops and screaming back, but by knocking batsmen over. Stacking up wickets is their way of letting out steam. May their tribe increase!
In this, and most certainly many generations to come, Murali will remain uncatchable. As and when he decides it’s time to put his feet up and spend time with his still young family, he will have set standards that will take some matching.
Eventually, as is perhaps inevitable, another phenom will emerge, and put Murali’s record to shade. It is worth remembering, though, that when Fred Trueman picked up a then record 307 Test wickets, he remarked that the man who went past his mark would be a ‘bloody tired man.’ And we are looking at maybe a 1,000 Test sticks here!!
More than anything else, Murali will take pleasure in having restored the pride and the smiles of his Sri Lankan compatriots.
The role Muralitharan, and by extension cricket, have played in providing succour to the trouble-hit tear-drop island can never ever be exaggerated. Muttiah Muralitharan is the peoples’ champion. To him, the Test wicket-taking record is just a pleasant footnote, so typically characteristic of the endearing little man.
