The Australian Cricket Board has recently done their best to portray Muttiah Muralitharan as an anti-national. The article on their website titled“Muttiah plotting Sri Lanka’s downfall” certainly caught the eyes of Sri Lanka Cricket Board and their sports minister went on to accuse Muralitharan’s behaviour as ‘unacceptable and disappointing’. Here we would like to remind the fans and Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) alike about five of the moments when Muralitharan made Sri Lanka proud.
1. First player from Sri Lanka to enter Hall of Fame
Muttiah Muralitharan became the first player from Sri Lanka to be voted into the ICC Hall of Fame. His successful career spanning across 2 decades led to him being the highest wicket-taker in both test matches and One Day Internationals. It has to be noted that he has 1347 international wickets to his name and besides him, Shane Warne is the only other player to get more than 1000 wickets in the international stage.
ICC chief executive David Richardson said he was pleased with this inclusion. “We have in the list some very famous names of different eras,” Richardson said. “Muralitharan has been one of the greats of the modern era.”
