Murali retirement signals end of an era

On Tuesday, July 6, the news broke that Muttiah Muralitharan, at the age of 38, will play one final Test match, against sub-continental rivals India, before he retires from the longest form of cricket.

The announcement follows months of candour and speculation about the world record holder’s (for the most wickets in Test and ODI cricket) future, with his effectiveness apparently on the wane. ‘Wane’, in this context, is when Murali takes three to four wickets an innings instead of his usual five wicket haul. The diminutive Sri Lankan has re-written the record books, with only one other spinner, Shane Warne, able to rival his greatness though the numbers are firmly in favour of the ‘offie’.

His statistics are, in a word, disgusting. He has played 132 Test matches and taken 792 wickets over 228 innings. That means Murali takes on average 3.47 wickets an innings, every innings, over the course of his career which began in August of 1992 against Australia.

His strike rate is a wicket every 55.1 balls, and his overall bowling average is 22.71, the 7^th highest average of all time for bowlers who have taken 200 wickets or more in Test matches. For a spinner, he is only bettered by Jim Laker, the first man to take 10 wickets in an innings in a Test, who took 193 wickets with a strike rate of 62.3. Warne’s strike rate was 57.4.

What was the secret to his success? Murali was the first off spinner to radically alter the oldest art of spinning a cricket ball, using his wrist instead of his fingers, as is custom. As a finger spinner myself (of the club variety mind you), that is a massive advantage since only men with webs for fingers can even come close to imparting the same amount of spin as Murali can.

Spin, while very important, wasn’t the only reason why Murali will go down as a one-of-a-kind-bowler. Like Warne, Murali had the ability to control the amount of spin he wants to put on the ball. Nasser Hussain, the former England captain, said that Murali’s ability to control the amount of spin was incredibly difficult to deal with, as this also affected the loop and bounce of the ball, two intrinsic but often forgotten aspects of spin bowling.

Spin, loop, and bounce combined with accuracy, a weapon he shared with Warne, made him especially in Sri Lankan as one of the most dangerous bowlers to have graced the game. To make matters even worse for batsmen, unlike fast bowlers who tire, Murali didn’t merely bowl a 10 over spell and head to third man. He would often bowl unchanged through sessions, meaning only batsman of extreme skill or patience had the ability to stop him.

An example would be Daryll Cullinan’s superb 114* in Galle in 2000. It is easily one of the best knocks ever made by a South African batsman overseas. He starved off a hat trick, with the rest of the batting line-up in that match making a combined total of 124. Such occurrences are rare, and Murali’s record stands up to that. Apart from Brian Lara, easily one of the best players of spin bowling in cricket’s history, in that 2001-2002 series where he waged a virtual one man war against Murali, scoring 668 runs over the three Tests (41% of all West Indian runs made in the entire series), no other batsman has matched him. Even if you won the battle in one innings, by the next Murali would’ve analysed you, broken your technique down and figured out a way to get you out.

It also means that the era of spinners dominating the Test circuit is coming to an end, a worrying situation for purists of the game. With less Test cricket set to be played, apart from perhaps Ajantha Mendis, Daniel Vettori and Harbhajan Singh, quality spinners are in short supply. Graeme Swann could also be included on that list based on his performances in SA (a country that doesn’t fully understand spin bowling in the most part), where he was England’s best bowler when they toured last year. Suileman Benn also has the potential to trouble the best but his development is far from being certain with the West Indies suffering their fare share of administrative and discipline problems.

If you can catch the action, do so. The likes of Muttiah Muralitharan will never be seen again. His record is on the verge of unbreakable, a fitting tribute to his longevity and also to the way he plays the game. Commentators around the world have always noted that Murali is one of the politest men they have ever met when he is off the field, a far cry from the determined and relentless competitor when he has the ball in his hand, spinning it excitedly before approaching the wicket. There are men who you would want to bowl for your life and others who live for bowling. Muttiah Muralitharan is the latter. A batting equivalent of that would be the graceful and sublimely skilled, even as his career winds down, Rahul Dravid.

Murali will be sorely missed. The only ones who won’t miss him (not entirely…the best always want to face the best, and Murali was the definition of that) are the hundreds of victims he has embarrassed through his mastering of the art of spin bowling, arguably the most difficult art of them all. Cricket’s essentially a batsman’s game, but when you had a bowler like Murali in your ranks, the shoe was firmly placed on the other foot.

Muttiah Muralitharan, the cricket world salutes you.