A bit late, I know, but couldn’t access WordPress from work.
Congratulations, good sir. You are an inspiration to us all.
Here’s a selection of tributes to Murali written by cricket journos around the world:
Michael Marqusee writes on the vagueness of the original chucking laws:
“The definition of a throw appears less clear-cut than was supposed. The authorities responded by revising the laws to allow a degree of flex. This has nothing to do with Murali’s feats: the law was changed to reflect new research, not to protect Murali. In retrospect it’s clear that, far from enjoying preferential treatment, Murali has been singled out unfairly.”
Simon Barnes writes, like only he could, on Murali’s persistent naysayers, the Aussies. He draws an interesting parallel between the furor caused by Jardine’s Bodyline theory and Murali breaking a record held by an Aussie.“Back then there was (and still is, in a fossilised kind of way) outrage that an Australian sporting hero should be revealed as nothing more than a man. The tactic of bodyline bowling exposed Don Bradman’s shortcomings and this was not acceptable. Therefore, the tactic must be wrong.
The record Murali has equalled is held by a player who, like Bradman, is one of the greatest cricketers that ever drew breath. But Murali is set to pass his record; therefore the record-equaller must be wrong.”
Rob Steen over at Cricinfo writes:
“In each of the seven categories to the right of the wickets column – best bowling, best match bowling, average, economy rate, strike rate, five-fors and 10-fors – Murali bests Shane Warne. Among that magnificent septet, those 61 five-fors are the most revealing (Robert Croft, the former England offspinner, justly equates such hauls to centuries). Yet even that staggering stat only hints at the colossal burden the tigerish Tamil has had to bear. Only one colleague, Chaminda Vaas (322 as I write), has scalped more than 100 Test victims; only Vaas (11) among Sri Lankans has taken five wickets in an innings more than five times. No bowler since Charlie Griffith, moreover, has had his action, and hence integrity, assailed by so many outrageous slings and arrows.”
I agree with every word except the ‘tigerish’ adjective to describe Murali’s tenacity.
Read Suresh Menon’s tribute here.
I’ll edit this post when I come across more tributes.
2 Comments
December 4, 2007 at 10:37 am
What a day Theena what A DAY. I will be posting my own tribute to the “smiling assasin” in a few days so watch out for that.
Murali , what can you say about the man.
Simply put he is the greatest bowler the world will ever see.
Did you get to see it ? If not let me know I go to some vids on it.
Cheers.
Damith.
December 4, 2007 at 11:41 am
Indeed, indeed.
I saw it a minute after it actually happened. Was at work, but timed my breakfast to coincide with the first 45 minutes of play. After he went wicketless during that period, I walked back to my cubicle following it on Cricinfo. When the wicket finally came, I ran back to the cafeteria.
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