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| Sunday, 9 May 2004 |
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Murali mystery ball that never was...
HARARE, May 8 (AFP) - When world record-smashing Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan was reported for suspect bowling action two months ago, many believed he had fallen prey to his own tricks. Match-referee Chris Broad questioned the legality of Muralitharan's bowling action especially when the Sri Lankan bowled his new delivery called 'doosra', the one which spins away from the right-handers. In other words, an off-spinner's wrong'un that does not come into the right-handers like a normal off-break but turns away from them. Former England batsman Broad said Muralitharan's 'doosra' (a Hindi word for the second/other one) needed more looking into after examining his action "closely" during the third Test against Australia at Colombo in March. The irony of it all was that there was nothing new about this so-called new delivery as Muralitharan had been bowling the 'doosra' for a couple of years before being reported. Nor was he the first to bowl it in international cricket. Pakistani off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq was the first to bowl the 'doosra' in the late 1990s in order to bring more variations into his bowling, but with mixed results. Off-spinners, especially in the sub-continent, began to follow Mushtaq but Muralitharan alone succeeded in turning the 'doosra' into a potent weapon. The Sri Lankan spinner nearly perfected it, especially during a home series against a hapless England last year when he grabbed 26 wickets in three Tests. Cricket experts believe that the pre-series hype had a lot to do with the latest controversy as many bowlers have claimed they are coming out with new tricks to surprise the opposition. Australian leg-spin genius Shane Warne said he had been working on a new ball before the Sri Lanka Test series, his first after serving a 12-month suspension for taking drugs. Muralitharan was no exception as the media had often quoted him as saying before every fresh series that he would try another "mystery" ball. Former Australian captain and renowned coach, Bobby Simpson, summed it up nicely when he said there was no "mystery ball" in cricket. "After watching the first two one-day internationals between Sri Lanka and Australia (in February), I am sure Muralitharan is as big a trickster as Shane Warne," Simpson wrote in his column in an Indian sports magazine. |
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