COLOMBO, 13 May 2004 — Test cricket’s bowling record-holder Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka yesterday hinted he will drop the controversial ‘doosra’ delivery from his armory after it was deemed illegal by the sport’s world governing body.
“The ‘doosra’ has always been at the back of my mind,” Muralitharan was quoted as saying in the Colombo-based ‘Daily News’ in perhaps his first public statement on the controversial delivery.
“People have questioned me about it. I have done all the tests that are required and the reports have gone to the International Cricket Council (ICC).
“At the end of the day what matters is what the report, the expert, my cricket board and the ICC says.”
Sri Lankan cricket authorities yesterday confirmed they had asked the off-spinner not to bowl the ‘doosra’, a delivery, which spins away from the right-handers instead of coming into them like a normal off-break.
“We have advised Muralitharan not to bowl the ‘doosra’. We had also informed the team manager before he played in Zimbabwe,” said a Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) official.
The spinner, however, did bowl the ‘doosra’ in the opening Test against Zimbabwe at Harare where he took eight wickets to break retired West Indies fast bowler Courtney Walsh’s world record of 519 Test wickets.
But Muralitharan, with 521 wickets in 89 Tests, is unlikely to continue with the controversial delivery in tomorrow’s second Test at Bulawayo following a ICC statement on Tuesday that it supported the SLC’s decision to tell the bowler not to bowl the ‘doosra’ delivery.
ACC Seal Asia Cup Deal With Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka signed an agreement with the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) yesterday to host the six-nation Asia Cup in July.
ACC Chief Executive Ashraful Haq and Jagmohan Dalmiya, the chairman of the tournament organizing committee, met Sri Lanka cricket board officials to finalize the details.
The Asia Cup was last held in Dhaka in June 2000 when Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by 39 runs in the final of what was then a four-nation tournament.
It has been revived after the resumption of bilateral cricket ties between India and Pakistan and the ACC now plans to stage the event every two years.
The ACC will also seek changes to the International Cricket Council’s Ten Year Plan to create space in the global calendar for the Asian Test Championship and more India-Pakistan tours.
“Cricket in Asia was suffering because India and Pakistan were not playing,” Dalmiya told reporters. “We need the four main teams in Asia to be playing against each other if we are to develop cricket in the region.”
“We are confident that the tournament can be played every two years but the only problem is the current ICC 10-year (plan) which leaves us with such a heavy schedule,” Dalmiya added.
“This must be revised and we will be taking up the matter during the ICC Executive Board meeting in June.”
The Sri Lanka tournament will include two round-robin stages and a final with a total of 13 one-dayers, all to be granted official IODI status, played in three separate venues — SSC, Dambulla and Premadasa — from July 16 to Aug. 2.
Calypso Spin-Twin Valentine Dies
In London, Alf Valentine, former West Indies spin-bowling great of the 1950s and 60s, has died at his home in Orlando, Florida at the age of 74.
The Jamaican formed part of a famed spin attack with Sonny Ramadhin and the pair became celebrated in a Calypso song “Those little pals of mine — Ramadhin and Valentine.”
At Lord’s in 1950, they shared 18 wickets to fire the West Indies to their first test victory in England, crushing the home side by 326 runs.
Valentine’s combined figures for the two innings of 116-75-127-7 remain a record for the number of maiden overs in a Test and his victims included former England captain Len Hutton twice.
His prodigious left-arm spin was to trouble Hutton for the rest of the series which the West Indies went on to win 3-1, thanks also to the batting exploits of Frank Worrell, Everton Weekes and Clyde Walcott — the three Ws.
Valentine played 36 Tests, taking 139 wickets at an average of 30.32. Like Ramadhin, who survives him, he featured in local English leagues before retiring.
