Each day it seems that someone wants to make an observation about Muttiah Muralitharan and how the Australian crowds will behave toward him when he tours Australia for the Test series later this year and then again in early 2008 for the One Day Internationals.
Now that he is injured it may just be that the focus will move to how much the Aussies will miss seeing this little genius bowl again if he doesn’t recover in time to make the tour. I do know that every cricket lover in Australia will be bitterly disappointed if he doesn’t make the trip.
It all started with Murali’s county cricket teammate and Aussie all-rounder Andrew Symonds appealing to the Aussie public not to boo Murili when he bowled. Symonds went so far as to suggest that if they did it would be embarrassing.
Murili on the other hand has been quoted as saying it wont bother him in fact he has said it will spur him on to greater things. That I do find a little hard to believe because I have been at grounds and seen this happen and my heart bled for him each time he took his cap at the end of an over. Put simply this was for the worst example of sports related behavior I have every experienced.
Now the Aussie leggie Stuart McGill has decided to have his two bob’s worth. McGill says there’s nothing wrong with Australian crowds continuing to bait Muralitharan when the Sri Lankan vies for Shane Warne’s world record. McGill believes the fired-up local crowds would - and should - be keeping the Sri Lankan honest in Australia. He thinks that sportsmen need to get over their view that spectators owe them anything and he thinks they are a little bit fragile. He says crowd taunting is not personal and he doesn’t think sporting crowds have personal vendettas. That may be so but it is bad behavior none the less. It would be interesting to see how McGill would handle this type of nastiness if he was the victim.
It is good to hear that the Australian captain Ricky Ponting is confident the Australian crowds will be appreciative of Muralitharan’s wizardry. Having said that Ponting is quick to point out that the Aussie team will be doing everything they can to see to it that Murili does not leave Australia with Shane Warne’s world record. Apparently one of the teams goals for the international season is a commitment to deprive Murali of the nine wickets he needs from two Tests to become the most successful bowler in the world. Ponting said that this goal was not borne out of resentment of the charismatic Sri Lankan off-spinner. Instead, he believes that if Australia can combat Murali, they will go a long way towards winning the series. Muralitharan has played only three Tests in Australia, for eight wickets at 63 a piece compared with a career haul of 700 wickets at 21 apiece so he will be keen to put the record straight.
An old grump
My old mate Stanley Jayasinghe has taken a bit of a cheap shot at me in a local newspaper for my involvement in the 20/20 Indian Cricket League. Stanley hates cricket’s shortened format so I thought I had better try and explain to him my position and why I actually love any form of cricket.
I have been to plenty of Tests in Sri Lanka and witnessed empty grounds. I have also seen packed houses for limited over games. Cricket is not about a choice between one form of the game or another. It’s about a formula that keeps the game we love going. Limited over games are the equivalent of fast food and those of us who have young children put up with it in the hope that they will grow up to enjoy fine dining. Come on Stanley stop being such an old grump and get with it.
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