For the love of Murali
Who's greater, Warne or the Sri Lankan with 800? We can finally lay that argument to rest
Andrew Fernando
25-Jul-2010
Murali: carries a beard off better than Warne • Mark Dadswell/Getty Images
While the football and water polo supporters were out getting drunk and chasing girls in high school, we stayed at home and calculated Tendulkar's innings-to-century ratio in our underwear. Instead of taking our wives to dinner or watering the azealas like regular folk, we spend all week crunching the numbers for history's greatest cricketing battles. Bradman v Larwood, Donald v Atherton, Arjuna Ranatunga v an ever-expanding waistline.
Murali's retirement was, of course, a perfect excuse for us all to indulge in this odd fetish once more. With a ready-made rival in Shane Warne, it was all too easy for the cricket world to be whipped up into a squealing, adolescent statistics frenzy. Who was more effective against top-class opposition? Who could extract more wickets on an unhelpful surface? Which of them looked better just after a shower?
But for all the stats, there were still several aspects of the Warne-Murali debate that haven't been laboriously scrutinised. As such, in the interest of creating a more complete dialogue, let's take a look at a few areas where the Sri Lankan holds the upper hand over his rival.
Deception
This is an important weapon for any spinner. Murali's greatest triumph in this area is that almost everyone still thinks the man is an offspinner, though he uses his wrist to impart spin. Murali is really just your average legspin bowler who simply began by exclusively bowling the googly before introducing the legbreak later on. He then took credit for "perfecting" the doosra and everybody ate it up without stopping to think. How hard is it for a wrist spinner to bowl a delivery that leaves the right-hander really? Stuart MacGill could do it - so, not that hard.
This is an important weapon for any spinner. Murali's greatest triumph in this area is that almost everyone still thinks the man is an offspinner, though he uses his wrist to impart spin. Murali is really just your average legspin bowler who simply began by exclusively bowling the googly before introducing the legbreak later on. He then took credit for "perfecting" the doosra and everybody ate it up without stopping to think. How hard is it for a wrist spinner to bowl a delivery that leaves the right-hander really? Stuart MacGill could do it - so, not that hard.
Photographability
If cricket was a beauty pageant, Murali would definitely have picked up the prize for Miss Photogenic. Unlike with those near-naked pics of Simon Katich and Shane Watson, not many thinking cricket fans got to admire Murali's bulging line and length or his washboard footwork, but that set of intense, ballooning eyeballs at the point of delivery has to be one of the most enduring cricketing images of the last two decades. Warne had that thinning crown by the end of his career, and who wants to look at that?
If cricket was a beauty pageant, Murali would definitely have picked up the prize for Miss Photogenic. Unlike with those near-naked pics of Simon Katich and Shane Watson, not many thinking cricket fans got to admire Murali's bulging line and length or his washboard footwork, but that set of intense, ballooning eyeballs at the point of delivery has to be one of the most enduring cricketing images of the last two decades. Warne had that thinning crown by the end of his career, and who wants to look at that?
Sledging
It's due to Warne's incompetence as a sledger than Murali's proficiency at it that he gets this one. Warne had a reputation for being in-your-face confrontational as a bowler. But we as viewers will never know what he said to batsmen on the field, so we will have to rely on his off-pitch comments. Why would you, for example, in a spat with Arjuna Ranatunga, make fun of his weight ("swallowed a sheep or something") when you had recently been banned for taking diuretics? Arjuna's retort ("better swallow a sheep than what you've been swallowing") is clever, I suppose, but make no mistake, this is Warne diving face first into a verbal slam.
It's due to Warne's incompetence as a sledger than Murali's proficiency at it that he gets this one. Warne had a reputation for being in-your-face confrontational as a bowler. But we as viewers will never know what he said to batsmen on the field, so we will have to rely on his off-pitch comments. Why would you, for example, in a spat with Arjuna Ranatunga, make fun of his weight ("swallowed a sheep or something") when you had recently been banned for taking diuretics? Arjuna's retort ("better swallow a sheep than what you've been swallowing") is clever, I suppose, but make no mistake, this is Warne diving face first into a verbal slam.
Comedy
Following in a rich tradition stretching from Charlie Chaplin to Jim Carrey, Murali took physical comedy to a new level with his batting. In an era where talented others like Sreesanth did their best to bring us joy by making sweet, sweet air-love, Murali emerges as the undisputable champion of cricketing japery with his immensely uncoordinated swipes and irresponsible baseball swats. His comedic magnum opus was a recent ODI where he won the Man-of-the-Match award mainly for his batting. Sure, Warne was no slouch either, with his sexual trysts and trouble-riddled career providing plenty of hilarious mileage. But if it is the controversial type of comic relief you are after, there is a whole bunch of very talented funny men doing the cricket circuit nowadays who have Warne beat hands down. I believe they are collectively called Team Pakistan.
Following in a rich tradition stretching from Charlie Chaplin to Jim Carrey, Murali took physical comedy to a new level with his batting. In an era where talented others like Sreesanth did their best to bring us joy by making sweet, sweet air-love, Murali emerges as the undisputable champion of cricketing japery with his immensely uncoordinated swipes and irresponsible baseball swats. His comedic magnum opus was a recent ODI where he won the Man-of-the-Match award mainly for his batting. Sure, Warne was no slouch either, with his sexual trysts and trouble-riddled career providing plenty of hilarious mileage. But if it is the controversial type of comic relief you are after, there is a whole bunch of very talented funny men doing the cricket circuit nowadays who have Warne beat hands down. I believe they are collectively called Team Pakistan.
Guinea pig
Perhaps the most "tested" cricketer in history, Murali performed the role of cricket's lab rat flawlessly. Repeating the experiment multiple times to ensure accuracy, analysed using the latest high-tech equipment, and being part of a scientific process that redefined our understanding of the subject. Every bowler in the world is now classed a chucker. You couldn't really have asked for a better guinea pig. If his chosen field had been pathology, they probably would have cured AIDS by now. Warne too had his own creative uses of modern technology, but alas, produced slightly less inspiring results.
Perhaps the most "tested" cricketer in history, Murali performed the role of cricket's lab rat flawlessly. Repeating the experiment multiple times to ensure accuracy, analysed using the latest high-tech equipment, and being part of a scientific process that redefined our understanding of the subject. Every bowler in the world is now classed a chucker. You couldn't really have asked for a better guinea pig. If his chosen field had been pathology, they probably would have cured AIDS by now. Warne too had his own creative uses of modern technology, but alas, produced slightly less inspiring results.
Andrew Fernando is a student at Auckland University. He blogs at www.cricketordeath.com