Battle lines will be redrawn today (19 January 1999)

19 January 1999

Battle lines will be redrawn today

Samson Abayagunawardena

JANUARY 18 (Monday)-"The battle lines will be redrawn tomorrow January 19 (Tuesday) when Sri Lanka take the field again at the Melbourne Cricket Ground."

So writes Andrew Ramsey today in the nationally circulating daily The Australian.

Tomorrow's match in the current one-day tri-nation series is between Sri Lanka and England.

Media commentators are drawing on military and legal jargon to embellish their reports about the controversy over Muralithran's bowling action. "Bowling in the shadow of judgment" is the heading given to Ramsey's article. The long sub-heading reads: "The International Cricket Council confirmed on Saturday that it had cleared the bowling action of controversial Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan last year but the jury is still out".

The jury in this case is the Australian crowd. Comments about Muralitharan's bowling action have led to spectators making up their minds about this off-spinner. The crowd is ready to cry "No ball" when Murali comes to the crease.

This cry by the crowd harks back to Sri Lanka's previous tour of Australia in 1995-96, when Muralitharan was no-balled fourteen times by umpires here. Murali has bowled in other countries without his action being questioned. The International Cricket Council revealed during the weekend that it had studied and cleared Murali's bowling action. But the crowds here have not forgotten events of the previous tour.

Events of the previous tour re-surfaced when Murali was mentioned in the match referee's report after Sri Lanka's one-day match with Australia in Sydney on Wednesday, January 13.

There are some commentators here who would like to see this controversy ended once and for all. None more so than Peter Roebuck, who writes for two quality newspapers, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He also broadcasts for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

As Roebuk sees it: "The art of journalism is to reach into the guts of an issue and pluck out the truth as if it were a diamond in a mound of dung. Sometimes it is not so easy. I cannot say whether Muttiah Muralitharan throws every ball, some or none. No-one can. It is a matter of opinion. Sometimes people see the things they want to see. His action is a matter of bone and rubbery wrist. These fellows can put their feet behind their ears. Yoga is their pastime. It is scarcely to be expected that they will bowl like some stiff Anglo-Saxon ..."

And on to tomorrow's encounter.

Source :: Daily News (https://www.lanka.net)