Muralitharan to retire from tests

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s world bowling record holder Muttiah Muralitharan will retire from Test cricket later this month, but may play one-day matches until the World Cup, officials said on Tuesday.

“Muttiah Muralitharan has decided to retire from Test cricket after the first Test in Galle versus India commencing July 18,” Sri Lanka Cricket said on its website.

The off-spinner, 38, affectionately known as Murali, is the most successful bowler in history with record hauls in both Test (792) and one-day (515) cricket.

Reports said Muralitharan preferred not to wait until the end of the three Test matches against India because he was unsure of being able to manage the workload of an entire series.

Sri Lanka Cricket said Muralitharan had the blessing of President Mahinda Rajapakse to retire early, although the bowler had previously said he wanted to continue until the home series against the West Indies in November.

Muralitharan will, however, continue to make himself available for one-day matches and hopes to play in the 2011 World Cup if needed, his manager Kushil Gunasekara told AFP.

The premier limited-overs tournament will be hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in February-April next year.

“He will be selective in choosing one-day matches,” Gunasekara said. “His main aim is to give way to young players to come up. But if the selectors want him to play in the World Cup, he will probably be available for that.”

Gunasekara, said the star spinner had decided to take early retirement from Test cricket as he was unable to keep up with the demands of the longer form of the game.

“He decided to fast track his decision because he realised that his body could not take the vigorous kind of physical demands of a five-day match,”Gunasekara said.

“The best time to go is when you know that you can’t do it the way you did before. Everything in life has an expiry date.”

Muralitharan, who made his Test debut against Australia in 1992, was a member of Sri Lanka’s World Cup winning team in 1996.

His 18-year career was marred by controversy due to his bent-arm action — the result of an elbow deformity since birth — which helped him impart considerable turn and bounce even on the most placid wickets.

The unusual action sparked uproar in the cricket world, especially in Australia where umpires no-balled him for throwing and former prime minister John Howard once called him a “chucker”.

Muralitharan’s action first came under the microscope when Australian umpire Darrel Hair called him for throwing during Sri Lanka’s tour Down Under in 1995-96.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) recommended a bio-mechanical analysis at the University of Western Australia and concluded that his action created the “optical illusion of throwing”.

He was called again during a later tour of Australia in 1998-99 but was subsequently cleared after further tests.

The prolific Muralitharan claimed five wickets in a Test innings an astonishing 66 times and 10 wickets in a match 22 times. -AFP