Murali is last hope for Wallaby wannabe

In a light-hearted article in the Guardian, the Australian sportswriter Mike Ticher predicts a rough ride is in store for Muttiah Muralitharan ... and his chief antagonist is likely to be none other than the country's Prime Minister, John Howard.

Howard is struggling to turn round ominous opinion polls, secure a fifth straight election victory and, most importantly, make sure he will still have the use of his personal RAAF plane to take him to and from the Boxing Day Test at the MCG (cost to the taxpayer last year a mere £5,700). He needs a distraction, a circuit-breaker such as the Tampa refugee crisis he exploited so successfully in the 2001 election. And at this desperate late stage there can be only one contender for the sports-mad PM: Muttiah Muralitharan.