Muralitharan needs urgent support

Clearly something has to change. Sri Lanka's most precious natural resource, Muttiah Muralitharan, is in danger of being mined into an early retirement. His bowling shoulder, packed with ice after every practice session and massaged continuously by the fitness team, is hurting more each week.

Natural joints can only take so much wear and tear. The longevity of his career, and the size of the world record he eventually posts, depends upon Sri Lanka's second spinner in particular and Sri Lanka's support bowlers in general.

Muralitharan's workload during this England tour has been phenomenal. Already, in the first two Test matches, he's bowled 164 overs out of the 459 sent down by Sri Lanka - that's a 36% share of the workload. His total series figures are: 164-79-217-19. Not bad!

The problem that Hashan Tillakaratne faces is that his spin wizard is bowling quite brilliantly. England's batters had arrived in Sri Lanka quietly confident of decoding his trickery, but they now admit that he's been fiendishly difficult to read from the hand. The ball has been spitting both ways and all the batsman to score runs have lived charmed lives - except perhaps Michael Vaughan who played him expertly in Kandy.

But Muralitharan appeared to wane during that final day. He bowled 56 out of the 140 overs in the innings. It was an unreasonable and unacceptable workload. Although he loves to bowl and bowl, Tillakaratne should have used his support bowlers more.

Chaminda Vaas's workload in the final two sessions was, for example, strangely light: nine overs spread over 4 ½ hours in the field. At first we thought he was poorly after he vomited on the outfield at the end of his run just after lunch. It turns out though that that was merely a badly timed helping of fruit salad. Tillakaratne surely missed a trick.

The unwillingness to use Dinusha Fernando - who was given just one over with the second new ball after Tillakaratne delayed taking it until the final hour - was also surprising. One wondered how many overs Dilhara Fernando would have bowled - certainly more is the answer. I have no doubt that Dilhara will play in Colombo on his home ground.

But it was the relative ineffectiveness of the second spinner, Kumar Dharmasena, which caused most concern. Dharmasena's offbreaks provided England's batters with few problems. Perhaps, with hindsight, Upul Chandana should have played? The legspinner had in fact been announced in the final XI at the pre-match team meeting but a last-minute change on the morning of the match saw Dharmasena being drafted in.

The more controversial view is that neither should have played. Instead, Rangana Herath, a left-arm spinner that has been hauling in wickets in South Africa and India with the A team, should have been in the squad.

The argument against his selection is that Sanath Jayasuriya provides a sound slow left arm option. But such thinking is flawed. You don't pick variation for variation's sake; you pick the best bowlers. Jayasuriya is a useful spinner, someone who is capable of nicking out a wicket or too, but is not in the same class as Herath. On the evidence of the first two tests, Chandana and Dharmasena are also no match.

Unfortunately we also have to be honest, Herath is no world-beater. When he bowls in tandem with Muralitharan he will no doubt look ordinary. The fact is that Muralitharan is truly exceptional. His standards are so far above most bowlers in the world that comparisons are unfair. Nevertheless, Herath may well be a better bet, possibly even for the third Test in Colombo.

In the long-term though, the selectors must intensify their search for bowlers. The Muralitharan era is, I'm afraid, slowly drawing to a close. He believes he can last until 2007, but with his current workload burnout might happen much sooner. A premature end to his career would be a travesty. Sri Lanka must protect him.