5th Column

Murali 'doosra' has bamboozled one and all
Murali reached a milestone in his career last week and we asked some leading personalities about the event and about the current controversy surrounding the 'doosra'…

Arjuna R: This is a great event for Sri Lanka which will create much publicity and promote tourism. This is why I decided to take oaths as deputy minister of Tourism after saying I won't. And by the way, this achievement has nothing to do with the President of the Cricket Board…

Wimal W: Murali will now be considered the sole representative of the 'doosra'. We know that is not the case but the reality is that he is the strongest among those who use it. So, we have to accept that even though we said we will never do that…

Tyronne F: I think I should get half of the credit for this because Murali made great progress when I was president of the Cricket Board. But now that everyone has forgotten what I have done, my advice to Murali is to have a stadium named after him before they forget him too…

Karuna: Murali succeeded despite a lot of people plotting his demise and has emerged as a champion. And he will continue to do so despite the best efforts to stop him. It is an indication of what can be done with a name like 'Muralitharan'…

Velupillai P: This record is yet another indication that the Tamil nation should be recognized as a distinct entity. When we eventually have our own test cricket team Murali's wickets will be deducted from the Sri Lankan records and added to ours…

Rauff H: We are very unhappy about being left out of all the celebrations. But we are very much against the idea of abolishing the 'doosra'. Without the 'doosra', our bargaining power in the game will be zero, so we will do our best to retain it…

Arumugam T: We too will be reduced to nothing without the 'doosra', so it must be retained at all costs. It doesn't matter who we currently have an agreement with, we will support anyone as long as they give us a guarantee that the 'doosra' will be allowed…

Eric S: We will be happy to negotiate between Murali and the ICC to try and achieve a lasting solution to the 'doosra' issue, even though we were once asked to get out without interfering too much. And we are certainly not biased about this, we just want the 'doosra' recognised as a separate delivery…

Mahinda R: In recognition of his record number of wickets, I am opening the doors of Temple Trees to Murali for 520 days. These days, with nothing much to do, I will do anything to get some publicity…

Ranil W: We have to thoroughly investigate the reason for the 'doosra' being rejected. If we tell them that we have looked at all the causes of the 'doosra', appointed several committees and have restructured Murali's delivery, we can fool them into accepting the 'doosra'…

CBK: If the ICC does not accept the 'doosra', there is only one solution and that is to change the Constitution of the ICC, regardless of who opposes it. That way, Murali can be in the game for as long as he likes. It is called changing the rules for one person's benefit and that is the only way out of this issue…

Back to Columns