Murali will be the cynosure of all eyes

In the first cricket Test between India and Sri Lanka beginning at the picturesque Galle International Cricket Stadium today, the interest would be centred on whether champion bowler Muttiah Muralitharan would be able to capture the eight wickets he requires to take his tally to 800.

Holder of both, the Test and one day bowling records - 792 in Test cricket and 515 in the one-day game, Muralitharan will be straining every nerve and sinew and varying his wide repertoire of deliveries determined to lure eight Indian batsmen to their demise.

Whether the Indian batsmen would fall prey or thwart every Muralitharan bid, only the end of the Test will tell. At the media briefing on Monday at the Taj Samudra, the newly married Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni promised not to allow that to happen.

Interesting to watch

Whether the Indians will keep to that promise and how they will keep the ever probing Muralitharan from scalping them would be interesting to watch. The Indian batsmen are masters of playing good spin bowling.

On a tour of Australia and with Muralitharan needing a few wickets to go past Australian leg spinning sensation Shane Warne, the Aussie batsmen promised that they would not allow the bowler to break Warne's record on Kangaroo soil.

They did just that and in the three Tests played, the Aussie batsmen showed courage and determination and every known delivery that Muralitharan spun at them, they negotiated with ease and the bowler had to wait for the Englishmen to break Warne's record.

Persevering

So everybody who is somebody in cricket in Sri Lanka and who flock to the Galle Stadium and those abroad following the destinies of the bowler's push will be asking the cricketing gods to help the persevering and once in a life time bowler to achieve the elusive.

Muralitharan from the time that he donned the Sri Lanka cap and began bowling in the big league, has broken every conceivable record. If he were to shoot down eight Indian batsmen he would have taken his tally to 800 wickets and that record will stand the test of time.

However when the final ball is bowled in this Test match, a bowler who walked the playing fields like a colossus will for the last time doff his cap and bid adieu to what the game is all about - Test cricket- never again to torment batsmen.

Poignant moment

That will also be a poignant moment and we are sure not only Murali's eyes, but also every Sri Lankan's eyes will be moist with tears, unable to come to terms that a bowler who did wonders for the game and in the game and who kept the name of the country flying high will finally call it quits and say 'finis'.

To the Test and that expert curator and former Sri Lanka bowler of spin and cut Jayananda Waranaweera has promised no favours to Muralitharan saying that he need not prepare a spinner's wicket because Muralitharan does not need one because he could spin on any surface.

Also the curator wants the Test to go the full hog and not end in three or four days and spoil the celebrations that have been lined up for the bowler. He wants all spectators who flock to the ground to soak in the celebrations on all five days.

Exciting finish

Unless the weather turns cruel, the Test is poised for an exciting finish, with the Indians and Lankans determined not to surrender and give one team the advantage because it will be difficult to come from behind and win the Three Test series.

Before going on to comment on the two teams and their chances, a sour note was struck when the Indians disagreed to have the Umpire Decision Review System in place for the Three Test matches.

For this system to become law it requires that the visiting team too give their consent. But apparently the Indians seem to dislike this system and they have again snubbed the International Cricket Council who are striving valiantly with no success to make this system law.

Weeraratne's brainchild

Initially this system was the brainchild of a cricketer, enthusiast and Attorney-at-Law Senaka Weeraratne whose every endeavour to get the ICC sheiks in Dubai to acknowledge and stamp it as coming from Weeraratne is being shelved for no explicable reason.

At the media briefing and when asked Indian skipper Dhoni said that the UDRS is still not a fool proof system and until such time it is, there is no way that the Indians would agree to this system.

With the Indians being the power house of cricket at the moment with their ability to bring in the mega dollars and also having their countryman as President of the ICC Sharad Pawar, they are set to call the tune.

Determined

As for the Lankans they are determined to keep the Test series clean and not allow umpiring errors to spoil the series. Umpires are also human and are not infalliable. The cake would have been the same for both teams and why the Indians refused to partake of it is inexplicable.

However the three umpires who would be standing in judgment - Simon Taufell, Daryl Harper and Rod Tucker are all experienced hands and can be relied on to make the right decisions leaving no room for error unless the unforeseen happens.

In the previous series between the two teams played in India, the homesters won the series two-nil and are determined to add to that success and go back having pocketed this series too. Whether the Lankans would surrender in their own backyard would be interesting to watch.

Battle hardened

The Indians have brought their battle hardened batsmen in Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, the mercurial and stylish Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and V.V.S. Luxman, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh along with Mahendra Singh Dhoni who could put any attack to the sword. The only Lankan bowler they fear is Muttiah Muralitharan.

Their attack is weakened with injuries to Shantakumaran Sreesanth and Zaheer Khan two penetrative pacemen who could not make the tour. But the gangling Ishant Sharma who has the ability to extract pace and bounce and move the ball both ways disconcertingly will worry the Lankan batsmen. He will have good support from the vicious spinning Harbhajan Singh.

Solid foundation

As for the Lankans, openers Tillekeratne Dilshan and Tharanga Paranavitharna will have to give them a solid foundation for batsmen following skipper Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardena, Thilan Samarweera, Angelo Mathews and wicket-keeper batsman Prasanna Jayawardena to consolidate.

The Lankans have still not decided how they will go in attack. Whether it will be pace or spin heavy will depend only after a look at the wicket. Over then to the Galle International Cricket Stadium which has been licked into shape for an interesting and exciting five days of cricket and to give Muralitharan a fitting farewell meant for Royalty.