Murali Makes History: The Greatest Bowler In Test Cricket

It is a scorching day in Harare. Under the baking Zimbabwean sun, the cricket pitch is close to cracking. The dry, dusty surface is perfect for spin bowlers. That suits Sri Lanka's purposes perfectly, as they pursue their largest ever margin of victory in Test cricket.

They boast a number of excellent spinners in their ranks, but none more famous than Muttiah Muralitharan.

Murali, as he is known to his fans, is not an intimidating man to look at. Standing 5'7, with a slim frame and a boyish look about him that belies his 32 years, he stands in the long shadows of the Zimbabwean batsmen. He is the son of a businessman, a humble man from a prosperous background. He is not a combative character, he does not have the competitive ruthlessness of some of his teammates; in fact, he's widely considered to be one of the nicest men in professional sport. Yet all of this is immaterial. When he bowls, he is fearsome and lethal in equal measure.

Murali prepares for his unusually short run-up to the crease. This is one of his notable idiosyncrasies. Facing him is Mluleki Nkala, a young batsman making an obstinate stand at the wicket. Stubborn as he may be, Murali is about to breach his defences. He bowls with his trademark action, firing a mesmerising off-spinner at his target. Nkala prods the ball forward, giving a bat-pad catch to the waiting Mahela Jayawardene.

Sri Lanka's players instantly mob Muralitharan, lifting him onto their shoulders and parading him around with glee. He has just become the highest-wicket taker in Test cricket and – with his 520th Test scalp – the greatest bowler in the world.

This was the scene on 8 May 2004, as Muralitharan broke Courtney Walsh's four-year record for most wickets in Test cricket. It was the pinnacle of his career at the time, an achievement that secured his standing as a national hero. Nonetheless, his triumph would be short-lived. Only five months later, he would be pursuing a new wicket record set by an old rival. That rival was a fellow master of spin, the irrepressible Shane Warne.

In the aftermath of Sri Lanka's emphatic victory over Zimbabwe, Muralitharan was sidelined after undergoing shoulder surgery. His characteristic delivery – chest open, arm turned upwards, wrist flicking forward like an angry cobra – had taken its toll. Warne, two years his senior, took the chance to make up the ground on Murali. While the antagonism between the two spinners was never quite as fierce as the media wanted it to be, Warne was still Muralitharan's most persistent adversary.

Though Warne restrained himself when it came to the fiercest criticism of Muralitharan's bowling technique, he had previously suggested that his Sri Lankan counterpart was prone to having pitches prepared to his advantage, and found himself commenting on Murali's career more often than was becoming. Warne broke Muralitharan's record in October 2004, during the second Test of the Baggy Greens' series against India in Chennai. Murali would have to fight dauntlessly to regain his status as the greatest bowler in world cricket.

At the same time, he would have to fight to defend his legacy – a legacy his critics were incessantly trying to undermine.

Though Warne might have avoided castigating Murali's bowling style, many had been less magnanimous. In fact, there were some who felt that Muralitharan's wicket record should never have been established in the first place. Owing to his unique style of off-spinning, many accused him of throwing the ball with a bent elbow as opposed to bowling it. The unusual motion of his forearm and his particularly wristy delivery only compounded the idea that his bowling technique defied the laws of the game. In the early days of his Test career, he was accused of "chucking" by columnists, commentators and pundits alike.

By the time he set his Test wicket record, this controversy was supposedly put to bed. Murali had undergone biomechanical analyses and been cleared to keep bowling by the ICC on several occasions. He had been diagnosed with a congenital defect of the arm that accounted for the angle of his elbow, and accordingly – at times – created the optical illusion of throwing. He had undergone medical tests, and been vindicated by their findings. He had even participated in documentaries with a sole focus on his bowling technique, entirely of his own volition. Still the criticism came.

Once he had recovered from his shoulder injury, Muralitharan set about reclaiming his Test wicket record. As he prepared to chase down Warne, familiar jibes resurfaced once more. He had already had to deal with comments from Australian Prime Minister John Howard suggesting he was a chucker, when former India spinner Bishan Singh Bedi compared his technique to that of a javelin thrower. Whenever he toured the Land Down Under, spectators would heckle his deliveries with tiresomely predictable cries of "No ball!"

Still, the number of splintered stumps mounted. Come the summer of 2006, he took 60 wickets in six Test matches. His opponents were England away, South Africa at home and New Zealand away. He tore through their batting orders, not least in the third Test against England when he took eight wickets in a single innings – all for a paltry 70 runs.

At the end of the season, Wisden named him their leading cricketer in the world. Across the entire calendar year, he had taken 90 wickets in 11 Test matches. With Shane Warne announcing his international retirement in December 2006, the Test wicket record was Murali's for the taking. He was about to relive that hot Harare day in 2004, and no amount of off-the-pitch griping could stop him.

Having reached a personal milestone of 700 Test wickets in July 2007, he slowed down somewhat towards the end of the year. Nevertheless, he went into Sri Lanka's home series against England with Warne's record of 708 wickets in sight. In the first Test in Kandy – Muralitharan's birthplace – a wicked ball deceived Paul Collingwood and sent the bails flying. It was Harare all over again, as Murali's teammates rushed to congratulate him on his 709th Test scalp.

Warne's record was broken, and broken in style. It had taken Muralitharan 29 Tests fewer than his old rival to reach his unprecedented tally, while he had only conceded 21.77 runs per wicket compared to the Australian's 25.41. Murali had done all this under the long shadow of controversy and criticism, with constant scrutiny of his style and technique. Now, over three years after first taking the record in Harare, the dissenting voices had finally been hushed.

@W_F_Magee