Last Wednesday the Hindustan times , the leading Indian newspaper reported as “Sri Lanka’s hopes of clinching the one-day series after losing the Test and squaring the T20 series, suffered a setback when Muttiah Muralitharan and medium-pacer Dilhara Fernando were sent home with finger injuries”.
According to the sources Murali injured his ring and middle fingers during the Mumbai Test (third and final match of the series held in the first week of December. This will be defiantly a big blow to Sri Lankan since they suffered humiliating defeat in test series.What has happened to the form of Murali in Indian test series and last few matches in 2008 and 2009?Will it is a signal that this great player is going for his retirement for both form of cricket? then what about the replacements?? Can Muthumulaige Pushpakumara fill the void for this series replacing Murali??? So many questions can be asked on this.
Murali has said that he may not be able to play for Sri Lanka for too much longer as the continuous cricket seems to have taken toll on his body. Earlier the great bowler from Sri Lanka announced his intentions of playing in the 2011 version of the World Cup, and said that he would retire from the test match cricket in order to do that.
However, in the latest chat with the media, he said that there is a chance that he may not be able to even play in the ODIs given his fitness woes. I think fitness is the major concern of Murali’s performance. Muralitharan has scalped 792 wickets in test match cricket .He is a Leading wicket taker in both forms of the cricket. Shane Warne is some distance away at 708 wickets, but he has already announced his retirement from the game, as have the likes of Anil Kumble (number 3 with 619 sticks), Glen McGrath (4th with 563), Courtney Walsh (5th with 519), Kapil Dev (6th with 434), Sir Richard Hadlee (7th with 432), Shaun Pollock (8th with 421), Wasim Akram (9th with 414), and Curtly Ambrose (10th with 405).
If you consider the Murali’s performance (Tests)in this year he took only 26 wickets in 8 matches(average 3 wickets per one match) against his overall performance of 792 wickets in 132 matches(average 6 scalps per one match).This is almost half once you compared with his overall performance.
His average for one wicket was 45.96 in 2009 Vs 22.71(overall).This also doubled and he has given 3.19 per over in 2009 against his overall performance of 2.47.But last year he played only 6 matches and took 43 wickets with the average of 24.47 per wicket. Specially he took 12 wickets against West Indies in West Indies including one five wicket hold (in an inning) in the second test match at Queen’s Park. In 2007 also he took 49 wickets in 8 matches with an average of 22.31 per wicket. In 2006 he was in his peak got 90 wickets in 11 matches with the average of 16.90.That was the year he took most number of wickets in one calendar year in his 18 years of test career.
It is clear that this was a small setback on Murali’s performance in test cricket. But again you can’t discuss or analyze the form of cricket by a player by looking at one year. Even this year also he took 13 wickets against New Zealand in 2 test matches. And also most worrying factor is number of matches Murali (Sri Lanka) playing against other countries per year.
He played only 132 matches in his 18 years of cricket career. Only three years he
played 10 or more than 10 matches in his tenure up to now. Most number of matches played by Murali was 12 in 2001.But the case of Shane Warne is different. In his test career of 15 years he played 145 matches!! He played 10 or more than 10 matches in ten times (Murali only 3 times) per year.
Even he played 16 matches in 1993 and 15 matches in 1997 and 2005.He took 701 wickets in 145 matches (only 4 -5 wickets per match) and his average per wicket was 25.42(Murali’s it is was 22.71).Warne took 5 wickets per inning in 37 occasions (Murali’s it was 66) and 10 wickets per match in 10 occasions (Murali’s it was 22).
So it is clear that Murali is still a Legend in Test Cricket. And I would Like to recalled the article which I had written to Asian Tribune way back in 2008 December comparing Murali and Bradman where I analysed and show that Murali as a bowling equal to Bradman. But once you get older you might having some problems with your fitness. Now Murali is 37 years old and this might be the reason for him to take that decision. (In One Days also this was the same (poor performance in 2009 against no any significance setback in 2008, 2007 by comparing yesteryears) for this star cricketer.)But in cricketing point of view it can be argued that Murali is still bowling well!!!
So Murali, still Sri Lanka, the fans of Sri Lanka want your service! You are a legend in cricket. You have many years ahead to prove that!! Hope that you will come out with the problems and perform like at oval, England in 30th August 1998 against England!! You can do it!
- Asian Tribune -
