Kandy’s Muttiah Muralitharan is the finest off-spinner in the history of the game. He bowled marathon spells, which baffled even the world s best batsmen Apart from his stock delivery, the off-break, , his main deliveries were a fast top spinner which lands on the seam and usually goes straight on, and the doosra,a surprise delivery which turns from leg to off .
Since his debut in1992, Muttiah Muralitharan took 800 Test wickets and over 500 One Day International wickets,becoming the first player to take 1,000 wickets combined in the two main forms of international cricket bringing honour and fame to his motherland.
He was born on 17th of April 1972 in Kandy, as the eldest of the four sons of Sinnasamy Muttiah and Lakshmi. When he was nine years old he was admitted to St. Anthony’s College, Kandy.
He began his cricketing career as a medium pace bowler but on the advice of his school junior coach of that time , Sunil Fernando, he took to off-spin when he was fourteen years old.He soon impressed and went on to play for four years for the school senior team, as an all-rounder and batted in the middle order. In his final two seasons at St Anthony’s College he took over one hundred wickets and in 1990/91 he was picked as the Observer Schoolboy Cricketer
After leaving school he played a few games for Kandy CC and joined Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club and was selected for the Sri Lanka A tour of England in 1991. He played in five games but failed to capture a single wicket. On his return to Sri Lanka he impressed against Allan Border’s Australian team in a practice game and then went on to make his Test debut at R. Premadasa Stadium in the Second Test match of the series in 1992 in which he picked up wickets of batsmen of the calibre of Mark Waugh and Tom Moody. He also featured in the 1996 World Cup winning side. He rocked the cricketing world in August, 1998 when he took Sri Lanka to their first Test victory in England against the home side with figures of 7 for 155 and 9 for 65 at the London Oval.
The maestro continued his brilliance with the ball as he took 6 for 87 and 7 for 84 against South Africa in Galle in the year 2000 Murali played a crucial role with the ball to take his side to the finals of the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup. The teams he has played for are Sri Lanka, Asia XI, ICC World XI, Central Province, Gloucestershire, Kent, Lancashire, Rest of the World, Sri Lankan Invitation XI, Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club, Wellington, Young Sri Lanka, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Chennai Super Kings, Kochi Tuskers Kerala, Melbourne Renegades,Chattogram Challengers, Kandurata, Uthura Rudras, Jamaica Tallawahs, Sachins Blasters and Sri Lankan Legends.
Our country has a rich cricketing history, producing countless number of great players that have graced the international stage. The record-breaking off-spinner, Murali is one of them.
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