Murali Rides into the sunset with 800
On Thursday, 23rd of July, 2010, Muttiah Muralitharan (or is that Muralidaran?) threw down his last delivery in Test cricket. It took his 800th wicket. And thus ended the most successful, most controversial and from some perspectives, the most celebrated bowling career in Test cricket.
On paper, Murali’s achievements bring tears to any statistician’s eyes. Find any individual bowling record list and Murali will be at or near the top. The most wickets taken (could 800 every be topped?) in Tests. I’m glad he got to 800 wickets – 799 would have given Murali a Bradmanesque mystique that is not warranted. The most five wicket hauls (67 – more than double 2nd place), the most ten wicket hauls (22 – more than double 2nd place, Shane Warne (always Warnie)). Most illegal deliveries. Most wickets taken with illegal deliveries. The list goes on. And don’t start on his one day record. That will take even longer.
But to Sri Lankan cricket, Murali was much, much more than just statistics. Murali was its heart and soul for many years. They could not win without Murali. In the whole of Sri Lankan Test history, they have had just one other bowler (Vaas). The ICC recognised this and changed the rules for Murali. There is no other way to say this: Murali was and is a chucker and the rules were changed to keep him in the game. For me, this must taint all of his achievements.
I won’t take away from Murali’s heart or abilty. He was a fierce competitor and a fine character. I guess debate will always rage over whether he chucked or not and about his permanently bent elbow. But the fact remains that it more than 100 years for an off spinner to bowl a Doosra (the “googly” of the off break bowler) and the only way it can be done is by bending the elbow.
Murali’s final numbers:
800 test wickets at 22.72
1267 test runs at 11.67
Murali demonstrates 15 degrees for the updated Cricket Law Book
4 Responses to “Murali Rides into the sunset with 800”
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July 26th, 2010 at 10:02 am
A fine read and I mostly agree. Love the photo caption. However you did overlook the important role Murali played in reducing the potential size of Warnie’s ego by ensuring that he is not, statistically at least, the greatest bowler to have played the game. Women the world over thank you.
Also, are you inferring that all the exponents of the doosra chuck it?
July 26th, 2010 at 10:37 am
Boom tish, andrewg. You make a good point – I did make some reference to Warnie always being in second place but you rightly point out that this was a service not just to women, but to all humanity. I should have made more of a theme of that.
Also, the rivalry at times did add interest. There was that series in SL a few years ago, when Aust and SL were head-to-head and Murali and Warnie were racing to be first to 500 or 600 or some hundred…
Yes, I am inferring that nobody can bowl a legal doosra, observing laws pre 1997. Perhaps you can do it within the 15 degrees but I’m not too sure.
July 26th, 2010 at 10:48 am
Mmmmm…..it was always my opinion (unfounded? unsubstantiated?) that Murali’s arm-curvature (I believe this is the officially sanctioned term
) enabled him to exert more off-spin on the ball, ala our games with a table tennis ball or similar in various hallways. Some work here in the office seems to substantiate this thought. I’m not sure how the arm helps the doosra?
July 26th, 2010 at 11:01 am
Yes, it allows more spin on the ball for the standard off spinner because rotation is being applied with the fingers, wrist and elbow. With the Doosra, for an offspiner to spin the ball toward leg, releasing the ball from the front of the hand, they need to either rotate the fingers the other way, which can be done with a ping pong ball, or tennis ball on a short pitch but it is very hard in Test cricket (I think jack Iverson did something like this by flicking the ball like a ping pong ball but he had bionic fingers).
My belief is that the Doosra “leg spin” is imparted by using the wrist and elbow to alter the angle at which the ball leaves the hand, so it is actually rotating in the opposite direction to an off-spinner. A bit like a top-spinner for an offie, but the bent elbow allows the rotation to go that much further. But what would I know… I can’t even land my wrong’un these days.