In the last one week the topic of discussion has focused almost entirely around the legendary Muralidharan who would be calling it quits after the end of first test being played at Galle this week.  On expected lines Asian and pro-Asian countries have been lavish in praise for the legendary Lankan while Aussies and Englishmen have generally tended to be critical of Muralidharan.

It therefore becomes very important to assess Muralidharan from purely a neutral angle.  Muralidharan 66 five wicket hauls  in an innings and 22 ten wicket hauls in a match make him the greatest ever because a five wicket haul in an innings is considered the equivalent of a century by experts.  However one thing which goes against Muralidharan is the fact that 176 of his wickets have come against minnows Zimbabwe and Bangladesh who have established a reputation for gifting away wickets.  If one were to look at Muralis tally excluding wickets taken against minnows, then it reads 616 wickets in 107 tests with 49 five wicket hauls in a innings and 16 ten wicket hauls and to be fair to Murali he and millions of his fans can still be proud of his stats.

However what seriously goes against Murali is the fact that he has been reported for chucking many a times in his career.  Muralis admission that he was gifted with a deformity which he used to his advantage though has to appreciated for his frankness also goes against him as he derives a advantage which his competitors cannot.  Another thing which goes against Murali is the fact that among bowlers who have taken 300 or more wickets in a test match career, only three have been reported for throwing or chucking in their career.  Apart from Murali the other two who have reported for chucking are Harbhajan Singh and Brett Lee. For the record as many as 24 bowlers have taken more than 300 wickets of which 21 of them ended their career clean.  The likes of Kapil Dev, Anil Kumble, Shane Warne, Wasim Akram, Imran Khan, Courtney Walsh, Allan Donald, Malcolm Marshall and Lillee who ended their career with 300 plus wickets were always rated very highly and recommended by coaches for their clean action.

Muralidhran though has been targetted by a few especially outside the subcontinent should consider himself fortunate too because he could not have lasted the distance in international cricket  had not  then skipper Ranatunga, subsequent captains Sanath Jayasurya, Attapattu, Jaywardene, current skipper Sangakkara Sri Lankan board and Indian cricket board supported him when he was repeatedly called for noballing.  Destiny too worked in Muralidharans favour as BCCI which was just another like any other cricket board before his debut in international cricket, suddendly started wielding power over the ICC thanks to the huge revenues it started minting in Sachin era during the early nineties.  BCCI in tanden with former players, cricketing legend  Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri were vocal in supporting the cuase of Asian players in which Muralidahran was the beneficiary.

While todays generation may take about Muralidhran bowler whose action was suspect it is bound to be forgotten by the subsequent generations and what will be remembered by them is the fact that he took close to 800 wickets or even surprassed it and that is what matters in the end.