'Muted, hollow, underwhelming'

As a child I can remember the headlines when Lance Gibbs passed Fred Trueman's then world record of 307 Test wickets. In an era when sport was given a page - occasionally two - in most newspapers, and when saturation radio and television coverage was a generation away, the column inches devoted to the feat were the modern equivalent of a week of nonstop programming.

There were few dissenting voices back in February 1976 when Gibbs overhauled Trueman - although Fred himself muttered that Gibbs, an offspinner, had bought many of his victims.

On Saturday, Muttiah Muralitharan passed Courtney Walsh's record of 519 wickets. The media coverage was extensive, the celebrations in Harare more exuberant than they were in 1976, but the overall reaction - outside Sri Lanka, anyway - has been more low-key. Lingering doubts regarding Murali's action have led to a less-than-comfortable recognition of his achievement.

In The Times, Tim de Lisle wrote that the reaction was "muted, hollow, underwhelming". He continued: "There were two reasons for this. The first is that Muralitharan was playing the Zimbabwe 3rd XI. He would have faced stiffer resistance from Devon or Ireland. The second reason concerns Muralitharan himself and the legality of his bent arm. Until very recently, almost everyone in cricket, bar Bishan Bedi and a couple of Australian umpires, was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. But with his latest trick, the doosra -- or offspinner's legbreak -- Muralitharan has tipped the balance of opinion against him."

"Few world champions have divided opinion like Muralitharan," wrote David Hopps in The Guardian. "For every person who proclaims him a wonder of the age, there is another lining up to condemn him as a cricketing pariah. It is best to adopt a position from the outset: Murali is a genius, a flawed genius perhaps, but a bowler who deserves to have his greatness universally recognised. Sadly, this will never be the case. His world record will forever be tarnished by the endless debate over his bowling action."

In The Independent, Angus Fraser admitted that the action might not be perfect, but added that "I turn up at cricket matches hoping to be entertained, and Muralitharan seldom lets me down. What if Muralitharan does throw the odd ball? Cricket is littered with bowlers with questionable actions, and he is not going to kill anyone. It still takes an enormous amount of skill and practice to bowl as he does, and if it was that easy, why is the game not full of similar bowlers?"

Peter Roebuck espoused similar sentiments in the Indian Express: "Now Murali stands at once as a champion and an outcast. His record-breaking performance will provoke a mixture of congratulation and resentment. Even in triumph, Murali cannot command the respect sought by every man and craved by every performer. His head must be spinning as much as his sharpest offbreak. He has deserved better from the game than a mixture of hysterical support and abject condemnation."

And that theme was amplified by Kevin Mitchell in The Observer. "Whatever the earnest mien of some Test players, cricket is a game best played with a smile and a flourish. Give me Gower before Boycott, Sehwag ahead of Ganguly. And most definitely give me Muttiah Muralitharan above his army of mean-spirited critics." And Mitchell dismissed those who accused Muralitharan of having an illegal action. "Why is chucking inherently wrong?" he asked. "Because the rule-makers, who have always sided with batsmen, say it is. Once, bowling roundarm was illegal. So, too, was bowling overarm. The action has evolved, not always smoothly and often with a lot of arguing. He is unquestionably a genius and should be cherished, not admonished."

The reaction in Sri Lanka was, quite understandably, whole-hearted and enthusiastic. Most major newspapers devoted their front pages to the feat. "Murali on top of the world," proclaimed the Sunday Observer, which went on to add: "Had Muralitharan been a boxer like Muhammad Ali, the former world heavyweight champion, he would have proclaimed to the world in typical Ali style: 1I am the greatest'." The Sunday Island's headline was "King Murali", while Colombo's Sunday Times echoed: "King Murali does it!"

Meanwhile, the former Indian offspinner Erapalli Prasanna expressed happiness at Murali's feat. Speaking to The Telegraph newspaper in Kolkata, he said: "I am delighted spinners can now be placed on a par with fast bowlers. That spinners are setting targets for pacers is highly satisfying. It caused a lot of pain to hear that spinners have no role to play in modern cricket. People started saying cricket lacks quality spinners. It's a matter of great pride that Murali and Warne's achievements will be widely talked about now."

If one person was unhappy about Murali's achievement, and had no problems saying so, it was Barry Jarman, the former Australian captain and wicketkeeper. Jarman was the first match official to raise suspicions about Murali's actions. "It makes a joke of the game - it makes me sick talking about it," Jarman was quoted as saying in the Sydney Daily Telegraph. "Everyone knows he bowls illegally. I saw his photo in the paper the other day and put an old school protractor on his arm. It was bent at 48 degrees [the legal limit for spin bowlers is 10]. I put it up in the pub to show everyone. He is a lot worse than the University of Western Australia people reckon he is."