R Dwight: Innocence sign of Murali's greatness (4 Sep 1998)

4 September 1998

Innocence sign of Murali's greatness

By Richard Dwight

A highly respected Oxford professor was once asked, as to the quality he most admired in his students, his reply without hesitation was "The quality of innocence", that connotes amongst other things, goodwill, humility, lack of guile or malice ... It is this admirable virtue, that has been an innate characteristic feature of our world renowned spinner, Muttiah Muralitharan, both on and off the field. He thought it all has indeed become the very epitome of an ideal team man. One who sacrificially with deep commitment, not looking for position or reward gives off his best in the cause of the team and country.

This was very much in evidence, during the final stages of the now concluded cricket test match against England at Fosters Oval London. 'Murali' the spinner of the ball, virtually played a lone hand, stout heartedly relentlessly pursuing after each stubbornly resisting batsman, to whom the biding of time was foremost. It however redounds to the credit of 'Murali', that he was able to craftily deceive them and account in the process, for nine out of the ten wickets that fell, so as to keep Sri Lanka always in focus for victory.

As each wicket fell there erupted from him the spontaneous childlike delirious delight which affirms his unspoilt simple nature. A sixteen wicket haul, in a test match by any standard, is verily a rare, few and far between achievement - not forgetting his 17 five wicket hauls, his tally of 203 wickets in 42 tests, at the comparative young age of 26. Enough to stagger and overwhelm anyone.

But what is significantly distinctive is, that Murali is not quite aware of what greatness is, nor conscious, that he is a great bowler, that quality of innocence which enhances his greatness even more and, so endears himself to the countless many here and abroad.

Our historic victory over England was brought about by a splendid all-round effort by our dedicated cricketers under the consistent astute leadership of skipper Arjuna and his exemplary batting. By far the dominant factor however, apart from Murali's bowling, was undoubtedly the 'out of this world' batting of our gifted national treasures, Sanath and Aravinda. They lit ablaze the Oval with top drawer superb batsmanship, quite a contrast to the lack lustre, staid and podgy batting of their very own and that of their Australian counterparts. The English cricket authorities in recent years, were very much aware that we were a force to be reckoned with, and were perhaps tentative to confront us. And eventually, that which they feared most came upon them.

Notwithstanding this, they can take comfort and be appreciative in the thought, that we by our enterprising performances have given a fresh impetus and drive to liven cricket in England - reminiscent of what the late Sir Frank Worrell's glamorous side did for dwindling Australian cricket.

The only sour note in an otherwise successful and rewarding tour, was the inept adverse comments made by England's cricket coach David Lloyd concerning Murali's bowling action. It was not in keeping with the accepted norms, highly unethical to have descended low to the abysmal depths, to rake out something of the past, which has since been cleared as legitimate by the ICC. We can understand the insecure feeling that comes upon a coach of a losing side. Rather than taking refuge in an excuse on the final morning, he should have as coach, been telling his charges how to combat Murali. What is heartening to observe now, is that it has backfired on the coach himself.

We for our part who are gripped with patriotic emotion over this our historic win, are fully aware of the fickleness of mass crowd adulation which is temporary and at times false. The team mindful of this will do well to refresh themselves with Kipling's advice "If you can meet with triumph and disaster, and treat those two impostors just the same, then you'll be a man my son."

Source :: Daily News (https://www.lanka.net)