Cricinfo - Players and Officials - Muttiah Muralitharan

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Full name Muttiah Muralitharan
Born April 17, 1972, Kandy
Current age 36 years 30 days
Major teams Sri Lanka, Asia XI, Chennai Super Kings, ICC World XI, Kandurata, Kent, Lancashire, Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm offbreak
Height 5 ft 7 in
Education St Anthony’s College, Kandy

Batting and fielding averages
	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct
Tests	120	151	51	1156	67	11.56	1663	69.51	0	1	133	25	68
ODIs	305	139	51	516	27	5.86	737	70.01	0	0	34	7	120
T20Is	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0
First-class	219	263	78	2087	67	11.28			0	1			119
List A	391	175	63	722	27	6.44			0	0			142
Twenty20	17	3	1	16	9	8.00	13	123.07	0	0	1	1	4

Bowling averages
	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	120	208	40035	16137	735	9/51	16/220	21.95	2.41	54.4	42	63	20
ODIs	305	297	16534	10674	464	7/30	7/30	23.00	3.87	35.6	13	8	0
T20Is	1	1	24	27	2	2/27	2/27	13.50	6.75	12.0	0	0	0
First-class	219		62929	24954	1309	9/51		19.06	2.37	48.0		115	32
List A	391		20700	13115	587	7/30	7/30	22.34	3.80	35.2	15	10	0
Twenty20	17	17	378	389	23	4/18	4/18	16.91	6.17	16.4	2	0	0

Career statistics
Test debut	Sri Lanka v Australia at Colombo (RPS), Aug 28-Sep 2, 1992 scorecard
Last Test	West Indies v Sri Lanka at Port of Spain, Apr 3-6, 2008 scorecard
Test statistics
ODI debut	Sri Lanka v India at Colombo (RPS), Aug 12, 1993 scorecard
Last ODI	Australia v Sri Lanka at Melbourne, Feb 29, 2008 scorecard
ODI statistics
Only T20I	New Zealand v Sri Lanka at Wellington, Dec 22, 2006 scorecard
T20I statistics
First-class debut	1989/90
Last First-class	West Indies v Sri Lanka at Port of Spain, Apr 3-6, 2008 scorecard
List A debut	1991/92
Last List A	Australia v Sri Lanka at Melbourne, Feb 29, 2008 scorecard
Twenty20 debut	Yorkshire v Lancashire at Leeds, Jun 22, 2005 scorecard
Last Twenty20	Mumbai Indians v Chennai Super Kings at Mumbai, May 14, 2008 scorecard

Profile

Averaging nearly six wickets per Test, Muttiah Muralitharan is one of the most successful bowlers in the game, the greatest player in Sri Lanka's history, and without doubt the most controversial cricketer of the modern age. Muralitharan's rise from humble beginnings, being the Tamil son of a hill-country confectioner, to the top of the wicket-takers' list in Test cricket has divided the cricket world in the past decade because of his weird bent-arm bowling action.

He bowls marathon spells, yet is forever on the attack. From a loose-limbed, open-chested action, his chief weapons are the big-spinning offbreak and two versions of the top-spinner, one of which goes straight on and the other, which has now been labelled his doosra, which spins in the opposite direction to his stock ball. His newest variation is a version of Shane Warne's slider, which is flicked out the side of his hand and rushes onto batsmen like a flipper. His super-flexible wrist makes him especially potent and guarantees him turn on any surface.

His career has been beset with controversy from the start. Suspicions about his action were whispered soon after his debut against the Australians in 1993 and then aired freely after he was called for throwing while touring Australia in 1995-96, first in the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne by Darrel Hair and later in the one-day series that followed. He was cleared by the ICC after biomechanical analysis at the University of Western Australia and at the University of Hong Kong in 1996. They concluded that his action created the 'optical illusion of throwing'.

But the controversy did not die away. He was called again on the 1998-99 tour to Australia, this time by Ross Emerson. Muralitharan was sent for further tests in Perth and England and was cleared again. However, the perfection of his doosra prompted further suspicion and at the end of a prolific three-match home series against Australia in March 2004 he was reported by ICC match referee Chris Broad. More high-tech tests followed, and ultimately forced the ICC to seriously look into the entire issue of throwing in international cricket, which revealed that many bowlers bend their arms during delivery, and that Murali might have been made an unfair victim. On the field, Murali continued to pile on the wickets, overtaking Courtney Walsh's 519-wicket world record to become the highest wicket-taker in Test history in May 2004.

It is unlikely that Muralitharan's career will ever be controversy-free, a fact that he now accepts. But the rapid progress of technology and sports science in the past decade has undoubtedly salvaged his reputation. He continues to pick up wickets by the bucket load, although many large hauls have come against the two weakest nations - Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. However, he saves his most stunning efforts for the big boys, such as his duel with the Australians in 2004 and his eight-wicket haul at Trent Bridge in 2006 which produced a famous series-levelling win against England.

Muralitharan picked up 23 wickets in the 2007 World Cup, though Sri Lanka were unable to repeat their 1996 final win against Australia. Muralitharan next featured in the home Test series against Bangladesh when, with the last of his 26 wickets, he became the second player to 700 Test wickets. He duly passed Warne's Test record of 708 wickets against England in December 2007, fittingly on his home ground in Kandy.
Charlie Austin December 2007