Muttiah Muralitharan, the leading wicket-taker in Tests and ODIs, will retire from international cricket after the first Test against India in Galle, which begins on July 18. While he will not play ODIs any longer, Murali will be available if the team needs him for the 2011 World Cup, which Sri Lanka is co-hosting.
The decision to retire was taken after a team meeting last week. He is in consultation with senior board officials to formalise the move. Murali has taken 792 wickets in 132 Tests and 515 wickets in 337 ODIs. Galle will be an interesting shot at retiring with 800 Test wickets.
About a year ago, Murali had announced he would retire after the home series against West Indies late this year, but in last November he said he could advance the Test retirement. "I am 37 years old and I can't bowl as much as those days because I get tired after 15-16 overs," he had told Cricinfo then. "But I will try and play a little bit of one-day cricket - that's only 10 overs to bowl. If I find everything is not going well I might retire from both forms of the game before the World Cup."
Going by his recent form he is no longer the dreaded bowler that the cricket world knew him to be.In the light of this I think he has taken the right decision.
Wish Murali all the best. Taking close to 800 test wickets is no small achievement. I particularly like Murali (and other Sri Lankans) for standing up to the Aussies (who in my opinion are sore losers).
"I think only Harbhajan can do this. I don't know how old is he and how long he will continue. But he is the only one who can achieve this feat in Test Cricket," Muralitharan said from Colombo.
est wicket milestones
1st: Craig McDermott lbw 9 vs Australia – Match #1 – Test #1195[58]
50th: Navjot Sidhu caught Ruwan Kalpage 43 vs India – Match #13 – Test #1247
100th: Stephen Fleming bowled 59 vs New Zealand – Match #27 – 1359
150th: Guy Whittall caught sub (Mahela Jayawardene) 17 vs Zimbabwe – Match #36 – Test #1395
200th: Ben Hollioake lbw 0 vs England – Match #42 – Test #1423
250th: Naved Ashraf lbw 27 vs Pakistan – Match #51 – Test #1489
300th: Shaun Pollock caught Tillakaratne Dilshan 11 vs South Africa – Match #58 – Test #1526
350th: Mohammad Sharif caught and bowled 19 vs Bangladesh – Match #66 – Test #1561
400th: Henry Olonga bowled 0 vs Zimbabwe – Match #72 – Test #1585
450th: Daryl Tuffey caught Sanath Jayasuriya 1 vs New Zealand – Match #80 – Test #1644
500th: Michael Kasprowicz bowled 0 vs Australia – Match #87 – Test #1688
520th: Mluleki Nkala caught Mahela Jayawardene 24 vs Zimbabwe – Match #89 – Test #1698 – Breaks Courtney Walsh's world record
550th: Khaled Mashud caught Thilan Samaraweera 2 vs Bangladesh – Match #94 – Test #1764
600th: Khaled Mashud caught Lasith Malinga 6 vs Bangladesh – Match #101 – Test #1786
650th: Makhaya Ntini caught Farveez Maharoof 13 vs South Africa – Match #108 – Test #1812
700th: Syed Rasel caught Farveez Maharoof 4 vs Bangladesh – Match #113 – Test #1839
709th: Paul Collingwood bowled 45 vs England – Match #116 – Test #1851 – Breaks Shane Warne's world record
750th: Sourav Ganguly stumped Prasanna Jayawardene 16 vs India – Match #122 – Test #1884
