by Chris Dhambarage

There were no palm clapping celebrations in the middle. There were no wild cheers from his fans around the corner. There were no fire crackers to celebrate his milestone. In fact there were only a few hundred of spectators at the R. Premadasa Stadium, the day when Muttiah Muralitharan emerged as the highest wicket taker in the history of one day internationals.

But to the cricketing World the 36 year old spin wizard will always remain as a genius having climbed the Mount Everest in both forms of the game.

He is only the second player after India’s Sachin Tendulkar to hold two World records having also topped the ladder as the highest wicket taker in Test cricket.

Never mind Sri Lanka could not stop India from winning their second successive one day international series here. But Dhoni and his men just could not stop Muttiah Muralitharan from breaking Pakistan paceman Wasim Akram’s World record tally of 502 wickets which stood for many years.

This is a unique achievement considering the amount of hardships and the difficulties he has experienced both on and off the field ever since he launched his career in 1992. He may be the most controversial cricketer of the modern age because of his weird bent arm bowling action.

Even then no one would deny the fact that Muralitharan is the greatest player in Sri Lanka’s cricketing history having reached the zenith from a humble beginning being the son of a hill country confectioner.

His track record in both forms of the game is simply amazing but the most significant fact was that he was able to transform the Sri Lankan team from a once struggling outfit into a formidable unit. In fact Muralitharan’s arrival into the scene had great implications for the development of Sri Lankan cricket with the 1996 World Cup as one of the major highlights.

In addition he brought more honour and glory to the motherland by winning the prestigious Wisden Cricketer of the year award in 1999 and was also nominated as the Wisden leading cricketer in 2006. But more than that Muralitharan had great satisfaction performing on the field and whenever his team came on top of the opposition whether it was in a Test match or One Day International.

That was probably the main reason why the celebrations in the middle were muted after he had reached the landmark because he always believed in winning was more important than establishing individual records. And quite appropriately he dedicated his World record to his fans and family who had sacrificed a lot in the past few years.

Muralitharan is without doubt the biggest influential cricketer having guided the island nation to some of the most memorable and fascinating victories in the recent past. Incidentally Sri Lanka had an unimpressive record in one day internationals before Muralitharan made his debut.

They had won only 35 matches and lost 103 but since his inclusion they have won a total of 185 games of the 321 matches he has played in. This is a clear indication of his talent and potential and the amount of damage he could do to the opposition teams.

The wizard will spin on.