The Murali Saga reviewed and clarified by Vithushan Ehantharaja

Vithushan Ehantharaja’s account of the manifold events and the several people who took up the cause of Muralitharan’s bowling action when it was eviscerated on several occasions by cricket authorities and personnel in powerful positions is now available in The Cricket Monthly and at ESPNcricinfo under the striking title WHEN MURALI BARED HIS SOUL. 

It has been reproduced under a different title at https://cricketique.wordpress.com/2016/08/09/muralis-testing-times-through-thick-and-thin/ 

In an unprecedented act on the 23rd January 1999 the SL captain Arjuna Ranatunga challenged and berated Umpire Ross Emerson for no-balling Muralitharan at Adelaide Oval [in what we now know was an a ction taken on instructions by key individuals in the Australian cricketing fraternity]

 In an unprecedented act on 23rd January 1999 Arjuna Ranatunga challenged and berated Umpire Ross Emerson for no-balling Muralitharan [in what we now know to have been a pre-planned act involving several Australian cricket personnel]

Readers may not be aware of the detailed study of those moments when Muralithran’s action or parts thereof (namely the doosra delivery) were challenged formally –sometimes by machinations involving key personnel in the Australian cricket hierarchy at moments when Sri Lanka were playing in that land. This account is presented under the title “Saving Murali: Action On-field and Off-field, 1995 -2005” in Roberts, Incursions & Excursions in and around Sri Lankan Cricket, Colombo, Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2011, ISBN 978-955-53198-0-5. I make no excuses in re-producing the mug shots and scenery identifying those who helped Muraliat various moments. Hallelujah.

 Daryl Foster of UWA  Bruce Elliott of UWA   Dr Quintus de Zylwa of Melbourne  Tony Greig of the Channel Nine Commentary team  Dr Ravindra Jayatilleka of Hong Kong University 

 Thilanga Sumathipala, President BCCSL in 1996

Kushil Gunasekera 

 Mahinda Wijesinghe

 Dhillon braces Murali for Mahinda to face him [with pads of course]

Dr Ravi Goonetilleka’s tests on Murali in Hong Kong in 1996 were an important episode in the processes helping Murali, but because of the Orientalist attitudes in the world today had less clout than the work of the UWA team comprising Elliott, Foster and Alderson. BUT they are worth noting as illustrations of science in aid of sport.

 

 Murali being measured by Alderson at UWA, Perth

  Murali as bionic man at Perth

The moment of Truth presented by the UWA team

ALSO SEE

• Bernard Whimpress: “Murali’s Chucking Episodes in Australia,” in Michael Roberts,, Essaying Cricket. Sri Lanka and Beyond, Colombo, Vijitha Yapa Publishers, 2006. ISBN 955-1266-26-9, pp. 305-13.
• Bernard Whimpress: Chuckers, 2004
• Sambit Bal: “The Throwing Controversy: Save the Doosra,” in Michael Roberts,, Essaying Cricket, 2006, pp.  314-16.
• Glucka Wijesuriya: “Murali and the Bowling Issue,” in Michael Roberts,, Essaying Cricket, 2006, pp.  317-20.
• Peter Roebuck: “Secret filming reveals extent of bowlers who Chuck,” in Michael Roberts,, Essaying Cricket, 2006, pp.  321-23.