Murali strikes back

It was an extraordinary event. Muttiah Muralitharan, cricket's most prolific bowler ever, a talismanic performer who could end his career as the bowler's equivalent of Don Bradman, out on a club ground in England, his bowling arm in a brace designed to keep it straight, bowling before a television camera to salvage his honour. It took him a while to get used to the imposed handicap, but soon he was turning them in, and then some out, prodigiously as ever.

Murali says that he's resigned to the fact that there will always be those who question the legality of his action no matter what, and this he ascribes to jealousy over his remarkable success, but his recent journey to England to shoot a television film was motivated by a desire to demonstrate to the other 90 per cent that he is no cheat, and that, contrary to popular wisdom, it is possible to bowl the doosra without straightening the arm.

The trip to England followed his withdrawal from Sri Lanka's tour of Australia - a decision that had more to do with the appointment of Chris Broad as match referee for the series and the likely media frenzy that would ensue, rather than the daft and insensitive comments of Australia's Prime Minister John Howard, who said he believed Murali chucked - and the ICC's initial hardline stance on his doosra.

The four months since his doosra, a delivery that he has bowled for six years but has only mastered during the last 18 months, was labelled suspect and reported by Chris Broad have been an emotional rollercoaster. The initial frustration of being hauled into a fresh chucking controversy, the third of his career, was followed by deep anger over a perceived lack of support from the Sri Lankan cricket board.

Murali claims now that Broad's report did not unduly upset him. The problems started when the report from the University of Western Australia, where he went for tests after being called, landed in Colombo (after portions of it had leaked to the media). The report gathered dust for a week before it was forwarded to the ICC. Murali had expected the Sri Lankan board to robustly support the conclusions of Bruce Elliott's team that his doosra, though it exceeded the ICC's tolerance levels, should be allowed until the completion of much-needed research into spin bowling.

But the board instead recommended in a private memo that he should refrain from using the doosra during the Zimbabwe tour, which to Murali seemed like a punishment being meted out before a hearing. When the ICC was informed of this communication, they hurriedly sent out a media release praising the stance of the board. This meant the doosra wasn't officially banned - Murali would have had recourse to legal action if it was - but the ICC had made its position clear nevertheless.

Murali received the memo on the eve of the team's departure to Zimbabwe and he was caught unawares. During the previous controversies in 1995 and 1998 the board, and crucially Arjuna Ranatunga, had provided him with support.

Murali felt let down and was fuming inside as the team departed. In fact, he considered pulling out of the Tests, and even premature retirement, although he backed down at the eleventh hour after telephone conversations with family, friends and his agent Kushil Gunasekera. Even so, as the second Test approached, a sense of perceived injustice saw him become increasingly defiant. For a while it looked as if he was going to defy the board and the ICC and bowl the doosra after the six-week first stage, a move that could have led to a ban.

But, just when his comments to the media were beginning to appear inconsistent, Muralitharan began to cool down. He might have felt let down by the board but his friends were starting to rally around him. A team of lawyers in Colombo pledged their support. Murali started to strategise, realising that this time he needed to fight for himself. As politicians in Colombo began to make well meaning but dangerously confrontational statements, openly challenging the ICC, Muralitharan was mellowing, becoming ever more philosophical. A steely determination had replaced his anger. Like many, he had issues with the ICC's stance - including the long drawn-out time frame for their research into spin bowling and the potential pitfalls of their match-based (as opposed to laboratory-based) assessment of other spinners - but he was content that there was at least a process in place.

Gradually the Sri Lankan board grew more understanding. The re-emergence of former board president Thilanga Sumathipala who, though no longer a member of the board, encouraged a firmer stance, helped. Strong, scientifically sound representations were made to the ICC, both during the Cricket Committee's meeting in Dubai and the Executive Board meetings at Lord's at the end of June. Murali's lawyers put together a draft outlining his misgivings about the process, which was forwarded to Malcolm Speed, ICC's chief executive. The ICC agreed to speed up the process, promising to deliver their conclusions by November 2004 rather than February 2005.

Meanwhile in England, Glucca Wijesuriya, a successful lawyer and property developer who owns the Shenley Cricket Ground and is also a close friend of Murali and passionate cricket follower, started discussions with Channel 4 about the possibility of a special television programme to analyse Murali's action. Simultaneously in Colombo a tailormade arm-brace was conceived and then designed by Dr Mandeep Dhillon, a senior orthopaedic consultant surgeon of the Apollo hospital.

The brace was tested in Colombo before Murali flew to the UK for what was to prove an extremely successful public relations exercise. His arm locked straight by the brace, which was moulded with plaster of paris and fitted with steel rods, he was filmed in front of five cameras, including the all-new 2,000-frames-per-second 4-Sight camera. He unveiled his full repertoire of deliveries - offbreak, topspinner and doosra - and, crucially, was able to spin the ball vigorously both ways.

Murali returned to Sri Lanka for the Asia Cup with increased confidence that his ordeal is now nearing its end. Visibly more upbeat, determined to look for a silver lining to the controversy, he now even talks about playing beyond the 2007 World Cup. For the third time, a potentially career-threatening crisis has made him more determined and mentally resilient, an astonishing testament to the strength of his character.