Muraligate: SLC’s crab-walk boogie
It sounds like the ‘crab-walk boogie’. From one end, the Lankan Cricket authorities are berating Muttiah Muralitharan and making various insinuations. From the other end, the World Cricket authorities have come out and bestowed on the ‘smiling assassin of cricket’ the highest accolade that a Sri Lankan Cricketer could ever have received.
The ICC statement said: “Record-breaking off-spinner Muralitharan becomes the first Sri Lankan Cricketer to be inducted, along with twice ICC Women’s World Cup winner and former Australia Women’s Captain Karen Rolton, her compatriot Arthur Morris, a member of Don Bradman’s ‘invincibles’ and England’s George Lohmann, the 19th century fast bowler who took 100 wickets in just 16 Tests, has been inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
It further said, “Muralitharan has been one of the greats of the modern era. His guile and consistency over the years helped Sri Lanka develop as a very competitive side in both Tests and ODI Cricket.” Controversy was never out of Murali’s realms throughout his career or, even after as it seems now. He ended with a haul of 800 wickets in Test Cricket – a feat that any other cricketer could only dream of. I do not think that, in the foreseeable future, with the work pressures of a modern-day cricketer, one could ever sustain himself to achieve what Muralitharan did. Yet, he did engage in all thee formats of the game, and hardly ever broke down with injury.
The Australian-Murali saga is as old as the International Cricket career of Muralitharan. During the Boxing-day Test between Australia and Sri Lanka, the double-jointed off-spinner Muralitharan, had played only 22 Test matches and bagged only 80 wickets, when Umpire Darrell Hair called him for “throwing”. That was on December 26, 1995.
Since then, in one way or the other, Sri Lanka Cricket was never the same and more over, bowling at international level was never the same again. Yet, this man was resolute and dogged. He kept on bowling with a smile on his face. Every time the authorities tried to stop him, he came back with more guile and ended up achieving what he did, at the end of his career.
Yet, what happened last week left a sour note on Sri Lanka Cricket, and it is sure to linger for some time to come. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) came down in a heap on the former champion spinner. An AFP news story described the Muraligate in this manner: “Sri Lanka’s Cricket Board lodged a complaint with the visiting Australians, after their bowling consultant and local legend Muttiah Muralitharan was involved in a bust-up with his former colleagues”.
On the eve of the first of three Tests, Board president Thilanga Sumathipala accused Muralitharan of insulting Sri Lanka team manager Charith Senanayake in a row over the Australians’ use of a practice pitch in Colombo (P Sara Oval). “Muralitharan’s behaviour is unacceptable and we have brought this to the notice of the Australian team management,” Sumathipala told reporters. “It should not have happened. We are very disappointed.”
Sumathipala said Muralitharan had bullied groundsmen at the Pallekelle Stadium into allowing the Australians practise there when it was theoretically off limits to both teams.
“He rode roughshod over the groundsmen and got his (Australian) players to practise in violation of the time stipulations,” Sumathipala said. “He later confronted our team manager (Senanayake) and abused him.”
Muraligate hitting the headlines
SLC chief Sumathipala said it was ironic that Muralitharan was coaching a team from Australia given his history. “Professionally, it is okay for Murali to coach any foreign team, but the irony is that he is supporting Australia which tried to get him out of Cricket,” Sumathipala said. “He is creating long-term damage for himself among his fans.” However there were other iconic players who has seen this incident in a different light. For instance former National cricket Kumar Sangakkara in an exclusive statement to the Sunday Times said, “We should be encouraging past players to go into coaching and we must understand that job offers are dependent on ability and not nationality.
“Tom Moody, Graham Ford, Geoff Marsh, John Dyson for Sri Lanka. Trevor Bayliss, for England. Troy Cooley was coaching England bowlers in Ashes and after their win is hired back by Australia. Gary Kirsten was coaching India. Mickey Arthur was coaching Australia and now Pakistan. John Wright and Greg Chappell for India. Chaminda Vaas was bowling coach for New Zealand when they drew series one-all in Sri Lanka. Mahela was a consultant with England.
“If each country hired only its own nationality there will be a lot of coaches out of jobs and the best not being hired. This is not a question of patriotism. It is professional discharge of duties you’re hired to perform. “It is the same in any sport anywhere in the world. A coach is a coach. It’s a test of skill and not a test as to if you love your country or not.”
Meanwhile, Muttiah Muralitharan who is in the eye of the storm explaining matters to the Sunday Times, said, “This is not the first occasion that the Australians have sought my assistance in the spin bowling department. On and off I have been working with the Australian spin bowlers, especially Nathan Lyon, whom I have backed since 2014. So, when I got the offer to work with the Australian team while playing against Sri Lanka, I accepted the assignment as part of my understanding of being a part of the spin coaching outfit. Even about the dabbling of the wicket, you could ask the relevant curator if such an incident ever took place”.
“Though I do not commit myself as a full time coach for any team, due to my family commitments, I enjoy taking up short stints as a spin bowling coach. The problem is that, the Lankan establishment did not approach me before the Australians. If they did, then the story would have been different. I remember once, former SLC Secretary Nishantha Ranatunga invited to me to do a stint with our spin bowling department. I did a two-week stint with them and did not ask for any professional fees.
“I do what I do without much publicity. The Foundation of Goodness where I do my charity work is a gigantic project of over Rs. 200 million-a-year. There we help cricketers besides other things, and we even put up practice wickets free of charge to the needy. We have the backing for this project from people such as Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena. If I am against Sri Lanka Cricket would I go on and help our people in this manner?”
Then Muralitharan explained how he took a stand against the then British Prime Minister David Cameron on the ethnic issue, during the Commonwealth Conference a few years back. He took upon Cameron and told him that he was ‘misled’ over the plight of the Tamil People. Then Muralitharan asked, “If I was a traitor, would I have taken up a sensitive issue of that nature?”
“If I, as a professional, am doing wrong by coaching the Australian bowler, while they are playing in Sri Lanka, what would they say if Chandika Hathurusinghe leads the Bangladesh team where he is the head coach? Would the Lankan authorities call Hathurusinghe also a traitor?” Finally, Muralitharan said, “I undertook this stint only for 10 days and that too, before the Test series began. Now the Test series is on its way, I am at home watching the proceedings, and I am not playing any further part in the series, until someone else seeks my assistance as a spin bowling coach”.
We, at this end, see this whole episode from a slightly different angle. SLC has perennially undermined its icons. There are more than one great player who has put his head on the pillow at the end of the day and asked, “Why me, after all I have done for my country.” Arjuna Ranatunga led Sri Lanka to its highest achievement in Cricket by winning the ICC World Cup but, two decades on, he is fighting his rightful place in Sri Lanka Cricket.
Then, Bandula Warnapura had to pay for the sins that someone else committed but, that was never rectified. Chaminda Vaas — by far the best seam bowler Sri Lanka has produced — never even had a send off when he retired. Then again, as the fast bowling coach, he had to face a watery end. So was the end of Marvan Atapattu as captain and national coach.
Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena convened a media conference against the SLC rulers, as soon as the Lankans set foot on home soil after winning the ICC T-20 World Championships in Bangladesh.
It is ironic that Lankan officialdom who have comparatively very little or no cricket at all, keep picking on Lankan iconic greats and try to belittle them, while they keep thriving. If at all, the authorities could have averted making a media feeding ground out of the Murali incident, no sooner it sparked off. However, in recent times, the SLC has been trying to gain through cheap publicity stunts. For instance, flying the Lankan flag from the Lords dressing room, when the authorities have asked all concerned not to do so.
Now, Murali has been bestowed with this latest accolade but, is SLC in a position to officially felicitate this Cricketer and savour our global Cricket achievement in a fitting manner? Nothing seems to move on a straight line.