Muttiah Muralitharan’s 709th Test wicket
It was Paul Collingwood. We’re sure he’s delighted with the honour. Muttiah Muralitharan is now the top Test wicket-taker of all time.
Murali’s had this record before of course, but no-one playing at present seems at all likely to overtake him, so we’ll assume that on this occasion, it’ll be his record for a while.
In this third paragraph, it’s customary to raise ‘the spectre’ of throwing allegations against Murali. The accusation is that he straightens his arm as he delivers the ball – this constitutes a ‘throw’ or a ‘chuck’ which is against the laws of cricket.
Even if he hadn’t been cleared of it 12 times, surely straightening your arm if you’re a spinner only makes it more difficult to land the ball where you want it to land. Go and try it next time there’s daylight – which’ll be about March in the UK. Straightening your arm only adds another variable into the mix.
If it’s really such an advantage, then his critics should just get out there and do it themselves. They should adopt his action and skip their way to 700-and-odd Test wickets at an average of about 21. That’s another thing, besides taking more wickets than anyone else, no-one around at present with more than a couple of handfuls of wickets can rival that average.
This piece should be more positive. Here are some links to some positive Murali articles:
Muttiah Muralitharan v England – 16 wickets in a match
First-hand experiences of facing Murali
Mahela Jayawardene reveals that you can’t master Muttiah Muralitharan
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We heartily recommend WG Grace Ate My Pedalo by Alan Tyers
On a more negative note, Benevolent Uncle Sanath has announced his retirement from tests. At least he went out in style though, having slapped Jimmy Anderson for six fours in one over.
Great stuff from Murali, though. I bet he deliberately took pity on the Aussies so he could beat the record at home. Next stop, a thousand test wickets.
It’s a great pity B.U.S. just missed out on 100 Test wickets. That’s Test. With a capital T.
Things that require a capital T:
1. Test match cricket.
2. Mr. T.
I pity the foo’ who uses lower case inappropriately.
And who hasn’t been on the end of that particular Mr T blast?
One time he came round at three in the morning, having seen that we’d neglected to capitalise the initial letter of a place name.