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Will Murali take the ICC to courts?
By Marlon Fernadopulle
As the ICC played down the doosra issue at their meeting in London Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and Muttaih Muralitharan were left fuming as they pondered as to what their next step would be in their attempt to save the controversial delivery.

The Sunday Times learns from reliable sources that when the doosra issue came up at the meeting the ICC was of the view that a process is now in place to establish proper standards on the matter and Sri Lanka will have to wait.

The ICC was referring to the September champions trophy in England when all slow bowlers will be tested to ascertain the levels of arm straightening, following which the ICC hopes to establish standards for the spinners. In other words Murali will have to wait until and after the champions trophy to know whether he can bowl the doosra or not!

It will be interesting to note how and what the ICC will do if some or most of these slow bowlers playing in the Champions trophy refrain from bowling the doosra? What guarantee does the ICC have that Saqlain Mustaq, Shoaib Malik or Harbajhan Singh will bowl the doosra? Thus if a sufficient data base is not built at this experimental champions trophy will the Lankan off spinner be asked to wait for a further undisclosed period of time until he can bowl his doosra?

At the ICC meeting Sri Lanka Cricket is believed to have not got the support of one of the Asian Cricket giants. Although SLC was expecting the backing of five full member countries, only four countries have backed Sri Lanka. Insiders say that if Sri Lanka Cricket were able to get the support of two other countries the doosra issue could have found a favourable response from the ICC.

With SLC back to square one now there was increasing speculation yesterday that former SLC President Thilanga Sumathipala is likely to take up the matter in it's entirety. Earlier it was reported that Muralitharan himself had complained to Sumathipala that he was not happy in the manner with which SLC handled the doosra issue.

Meanwhile the Sunday Times also learns that lawyers close to Muralitharan are also pursuing the off spinner to take the matter up strongly with the ICC as they believe that Muralitharan has a strong case to argue.

Infact Muralitharan himself feels that he has been unfairly victimized in this issue and has vowed not to give into the ICC nor give up. Thus it will be interesting to see if the World record holder for the highest number of test wickets confronts the ICC in a court house? Murali is currently in England and expected to leave to Sydney this week.

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