Murali has 60 percent chance to play in second Test says Kountouri

Sri Lanka's world class spinner Muttiah Muralitharan's chances of playing against England in the second cricket Test commencing at Edgbaston 11 days from today was put down as 60 percent by team physio Alex Kountouri, who will begin a period of rehabilitation with the bowler to get him back on the road again.

For the past four weeks since he fell on his left arm and injured it in the one-day final at Sharjah against Pakistan, Muralitharan's had his arm in a sling almost up against his chest.

The sling came off after he arrived here on Saturday and Kountouri who examined him said: "He is better than I expected him to be. He's got a fairly good movement of his arm and he's got very little pain. For the moment his arm is still stiff because he hasn't moved it for four weeks. We have got to get him working and hopefully, get some of the strength and movement back very quickly".

For the four weeks of recuperation, Muralitharan was treated by a specialist in Melbourne.

Kountouri said Muralitharan did other work for his leg and stuff like that in Australia although his arm remained immobile. He said that Muralitharan would train three times a day to hopefully speed things up.

"He will be doing basically strengthening exercises for his shoulder. He still can't get his arm above his head. He will be undergoing hydrotherapy treatment trying to accelerate things. It depends how quickly he improves. I can't see him bowling for another four to five days. He is not going to play in the next game before the next Test. It is going to be touch and go," said Kountouri. "If he feels okay he will definitely play in the second Test. But at this stage it's a bit too premature to say anything. I would say he's got a sixty percent chance of playing. There is definitely and element of risk playing him without match practice. It all depends on how much pain he has.

"We got him over here to give us an option to play him. As we get closer we'll have a serious discussion with him, the coach, manager before taking af final decision. He's a human being and he's got a career ahead of him. If we can play him we will. if we can't that's it. The final decision is partly upto him and partly upto us," he said

Kountouri said Muralitharan was very positive and was keen to play. "He was very optimistic. It is a little bit of unknown quantity what he needs to do with his left arm. It all depends on how much of strain goes through when he bowls. We'll find out very soon," said Kountouri.