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| Tuesday, 18 January 2005 |
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Comment by Elmo Rodrigopulle Murali third time lucky Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan the second best wicket taker in the game of Test cricket, who narrowly escaped twice from the deadly tsunami, had another escape after the Charity match between the Rest of the World and an Asian XI at the MCG last Monday. Muralitharan who was making his appearance after shoulder surgery a few months back, had been under orders from the International Cricket Council not to bowl the controversial doosra for 12 months. The ICC slapped this ban after the bowler had been tested by the University of Western Australia human movement experts last April. It was revealed at these tests that Muralitharan straightened his arm by up to 14 degrees when delivering the doosra. This was well in excess of the five-degree limit allowed spin bowlers. This charity match was sanctioned as an international by the ICC and it was shocking to watch the bowler bowl the doosra again completely ignoring the ICC ban. The victim of this doosra was the big hitting New Zealand allrounder Chris Cairns. Cairns who was bashing the bowlers around danced down to Murali intending to loft the bowler over mid on for a 50 thousand Australian dollar six.Cairns was stranded and stumped by Kumar Sangakkara as the delivery was the doosra which spun the other way and fooled Cairns. Now what Murali did was unacceptable. He obviously did not care a damn for the ICC. Was it that he did it to spite the ICC and Chris Broad who first reported him, or did he forget that he was under instructions not to bowl the doosra? In the big league, as former rugby promoter Kishin Butani would say, no excuses however good are acceptable. Muralitharan had he been reported by Broad who incidentally was the match referee in this game too would have been banned for another 12 months from the game. Also Chris Broad, the former England opener who reported the bowler last time round did not have the guts to repeat, or was he at that particular moment guzzling beer with the Aussies as was alleged after he first reported the bowler. Lest we be misunderstood, we say this because while the bowler must be thanking his lucky stars for not being reported, Sri Lanka Cricket and his coach John Dyson must hammer it into Muralitharan that rules and regulations have to be strictly adhered to. However brilliant an individual may be, he would be of little or no use to society if he lacks discipline. Now that Murali has escaped this time round one hopes he would be told by SLC and coach Dyson not to repeat the doosra in the charity games to follow in New Zealand and court disaster. One is also at a loss to understand why Broad did not report the bowler and as to why the International Cricket Council did not ask the match referee for his explanation. Muralitharan must be told to bide his time and wait for the outcome of the ICC meeting next month where it is likely that the governing body would sanction tolerance levels for bowlers to 15 degrees, which would mean that the game would not see throw bowlers again. Until such time Muralitharan must keep his controversial doosra under wraps. Murali must be told that even the great Sir Donald Bradman was not greater than the game. |
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