Adios, Murali!
One of the stories of this generation might just be coming to an epic end. It’s a story not just of a sportsman’s abilities or the undisputed talent that the man still possesses, but one which epitomised a triumph of strong human character – giving adversity the familiar facial stare you’d associate with him, and even that smile he always sported – irrespective of the situation. It is also a story of a man who knew that he was past his peak, the body – going through 18 years of wear and tear and a man who was honest enough to decide to walk away from the game, rather than being pushed or even nudged to do so. Muttiah Muralitharan’s illustrious career of undisputed talent, unconventional genius, and some wickets to boot only deserves to be celebrated and cherished.
On the very day speculations over his Test future were rife, I telephoned Murali, a routine journalistic call to confirm if these rumours were indeed true. The honest man as he came across, he stated categorically, in true Murali fashion, “After this India test, I am not playing Test cricket anymore,” before going on to also emphatically suggest that we may not have seen the last of him either. “If selected, I will definitely continue playing the IPL.”
The story of Muttiah Muralitharan is pretty much the story of Sri Lanka cricket as we know it today. He came at a time when they were no-doubt a fledgling Test-playing nation, winning the odd home Test/series and the familiar story of Asian sides struggling abroad. It took him a while to settle down, get used to the demands and questions posed by Test cricket, but once he got going, particularly post-1994, he became hard to stop and by the end of that infamous Boxing Day Test at the MCG, it was his unique action that became the talking point in world cricket. Umpire Darrell Hair no-balled him for throwing 8 times in 2 overs, and that somewhere proved to be the turning point for both Murali the bowler and even the human being. Romesh Kaluwitharana, Sri Lanka’s wicket-keeper at the time told me during an interview that the MCG incident changed Sri Lanka cricket forever. “We were so disappointed with whatever happened to Murali. If he was really a chucker, why wasn’t he called earlier,” he said before adding, “We wanted justice for him. He was a young boy, who had a big future in the game. After that Australia tour, we were desperate to win the World Cup for Murali.” And the Lankans did on that epic night at Lahore. Thus started my admiration for both Sri Lankan cricket and Muttiah Muralitharan.
It’s been that kind of a career, which some people may remember for his unique action, often controversial, but eventually, you can’t but forget some of his epic battles with quality players of spin bowling through the 18 years like Andy Flower, Brian Lara and of course Sachin Tendulkar or even a Rahul Dravid for that matter. And somewhere, even at his best – Murali had to come up with something special to get the better of these men, who clearly set out to attack him from the outset, which somewhere even brought out the genius in him – a delivery that came out of nowhere, and just did them in. And as Michael Clarke said in his tribute, a batsman was never in when Murali was bowling from one end. That just about sums up the Murali I knew and hope to see one last time. A contest which might well for one last time bring the legend in him, that too against the currently ranked World no. 1 team in Test cricket. And of course, as a journalist, you were never away from one epic quote everytime you interviewed him. I remember one of my interviews for Hindustan Times, where he just spontaneously summed up his thoughts about both T20 cricket and the IPL, saying, “T20 isn’t proper cricket, and that it was just a fun format,” which is just about right, given the nature of the format and the objective of the game being shortened for telly viewing. I remember vividly, one of my interviews with Tillekaratne Dilshan at The Oval, and Murali came out of nowhere to butt in and joke, “Beware of these Indian journalists, machan. Never know what they write.”, which I quietly agree with, given the way cricket is covered in the Indian media.
So, off the field, as his batting has shown over the so many years, pretty much a character you’d want to spend time with as a journalist, and somewhere – some of these legends also bring the best out of you as an interviewer. You could go on and on about his action, but to set the record straight – the blame squarely lies with the ICC and those running the game. If his action was considered dubious, they could have gone through with the process earlier, as they have begun doing so now, and sorted out it in a pragmatic manner, rather than the sort of hurt Murali had to go through and somewhere he didn’t complain. Fair enough. But what the ICC and the respective member nations must now work harder towards is clamping down on bowlers who seek to imitate Murali’s action and seek an easy way to glory. India (Mohnish Parmar) and Pakistan (Tariq Mahmood) have two bowlers respectively, who have rightly been condemned and subsequently had their actions remodelled and rehabilitated.
Somewhere, at the bottom of his heart – the man knew his time was up. And for a man who’s played the best of 18 years of international cricket with incredible honesty and humility, Muttiah Muralitharan made a decision that at best was timely (in the sense – knowing when to go) and in the best interests of Sri Lankan cricket given his relative decline in the past two seasons. For a man who fought through challenges – not just the regular pain-barrier, but the hurt of being labelled, abused and disliked by a certain section of people – it is a career that definitely deserves its rightful place in the cricketing annals. Not just because of the numbers he’s accumulated in that almost two-decade long career, but the way he got his wickets – running through sides at will on any surface, toiling and pegging away – Day 1 or Day 5 of a Test match. As indeed, watching a Test match involving Sri Lanka will never be the same again.
PS: This is my first post for a Pakistani newspaper website – The Express Tribune. You may find the edited of the post here.
