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| Sunday, 21 March 2004 |
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Murali's magic haul of 500 wickets - the best reward for me - coach Sunil Fernando by SRIAN OBEYESEKERE His meteoric story might look like one out of this world, better suited for a Disneyland script. Murali might have ended up as a softball player! Believe it or not, Muttiah Muralitharan, who became the third bowler in Test cricket history to take 500 wickets in the second Test match at Asgiriya, might never have made it but for a far-sighted coach. For Murali, who last Tuesday followed Australian Shane Warne into the record books of the elite 500-wicket bracket, after West Indian Courtney Walsh (519), started his school career at St. Anthony's College, Katugastota as a fast bowler. But, his coach at St. Anthony's College, Katugastota, not so far from the Asgiriya track where Muralitharan dismissed Michael Kasprowich for his 500th wicket, felt that the teenager in his 13th year did not have a future there. 'not that little Muralitharan was not a good fast bowler'. "He used to take about 3 to 4 wickets with fast deliveries," said then coach Sunil Fernando (52). But two factors influenced the coach to ask Murali to switch to bowl cutters. "One was because I felt Murali did not have the required physique to be a paceman, and the other was because we had a surplus of fast bowlers in the u-15 team," further enlightened Sunil. That was to be the turning point in the boy's career where the coach saw talent written all over as a 9-year old playing softball cricket in the college compound. But the youngster whom Fernando recalls bubbled in an extraordinary enthusiasm which other boys of his age did not have first, had to get his mother's permission to play cricket. "I'll ask mom and let you know'", the lad told me to when I inquired whether he would like to attend practices for the under-11 class team, quipped joyous coach. Having got the 'go ahead', the little bundle of energy was taken to what his coach says was 'the cricket pitch at my home at Weerakoon Gardens.' "With the change to spin, I started him on to bowl fast cutters and it went okay with Muralitharan taking 5 wickets for the u-15 XI in an innings in his very first outing against Maliyadeva College," went the coach down memory lane, adding that the 'fairly long run up he takes is because Murali started as a pacie.' Murali's will to succeed could be seen even then, says his coach. "I remember the lad breaking to tears and looking at me when he was hit for a couple of sixes in a match against S. Thomas' Gurutalawala. His very life blood was cricket. By the time he made it to the first XI he was rearing to go." What cricket lovers do not know is that Murali was as good a batsman at college. He was a keen athlete with a desire to run and also played rugger and basketball as a junior. "He used to bat at No.4 and 5 and he batted quite well. But in a match against D. S. Senanayake College, he was struck on the chest by a delivery which maybe the reason he began sidestepping. But it was a greater devotion to perfecting his bowling that I think did not permit him to give the same attention to his batting at the time. Of course he was a top fielder," recalled Fernando. Today, the coach is the happiest man of all. "Even to this day Murali has not forgotten me. In fact this morning (Friday) he made it a point to meet me before the start of the fourth day's play. The year he took 16 wickets when we beat England, Murali did not forget to visit me and hand me Rs.50,000 as a gesture of appreciation." And the marriage since those small beginnings has blossomed into a cricket lover's tale. Whenever he has the time Murali does not fail to call on the man who thrust him in a voyage that sees the Sri Lankan bowler in a race to beat the existing world record held by Walsh. Murali also did not forget his first coach when an offer came his way to coach the son of a cricket crazy Sheik from the oil rich desert land. "Murali sent me to Sharjah to coach the sheik's son in 2002," said a grateful coach. Interestingly, in a dual race of the titans between Muralitharan and Australian legend Shane Warne to reach the 500 milestone, the Sri Lankan achieved the feat in the thunder of the hills at Asgiriya in his hometown Kandy in the wake of Warne who did so a few days earlier in the first Test match in the port city of Galle. A race which is bound to gather momentum as the duo next meet in the third and final Test in the metropolis of Colombo at the SSC. And for a coach who says he had no monetary gains in a 23-year career from 1973 to '96, but 'I did it for the sheer love of cricket' there can be no better reward than by Murali the magician. Indeed, Fernando looks forward to that day when Murali would sit the tallest on the mountain. "I've no words how to express my joy. All I can say is that Murali is the biggest reward and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that day when he beats the world record." We asked the coach whether he had seen anything wrong in the bowling action of the controversial Murali. "Nopes, I never saw anything awry with his arm action. It is the tremendous turn he derives from the wrist which he did even as a 13-year-old." Still interestingly, images of a tough guy when Murali as a boarder at the college hostel flitted talking to the then hostel Warden the Rt. Rev Fr. Hilarian Fernando who is the current Rector. "I can remember him as a boarder for about 10 years when he was with us till he did his A/L Levels. That was at Gamdeniya in Pallakelle not very far from his family biscuit company at Kundasale. At the time the Principal was Fr. Stephen Abraham. He was a bit of a tough guy in the dormitory, but mellowed down," reminisced the Rector. Perhaps, the crowning moment for the college was the coincidence of its jubilee anniversary of 150 years and Muralitharan's 500 wickets when he was felicitated and given a special memento the day he reached the landmark. |
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