Ranatunga blasts ICC over Murali snub

Arjuna Ranatunga has denounced the inaugural ICC awards as "a farce and a joke" after his former team-mate Muttiah Muralitharan was overlooked for the World Test XI of the Year behind Shane Warne.

Ranatunga, Sri Lanka's former captain, hit out at the panel for ignoring Muralitharan, who has taken the most Test wickets this year with 68. He told AFP: "You expected better from a respected panel of judges. They said they looked at the performance of players in the past year, but that does not appear to be the case."

Ranatunga warned that the ICC's reputation could be called into question following the selections for both the Test and one-day world XIs, which both included five Australians. "People will have doubts about [the credibility of] the ICC," he said. "The performance of Murali in the past year was far ahead of Warne."

The only Sri Lankan to make it to the ICC Test and one-day teams was the colnsistent left-arm fast bowler Chaminda Vaas.

Muralitharan himself believes he was ignored because of the constant controversy regarding his bowling action. But he remained upbeat in the face of the snub, saying: "I don't need more awards - I already have the world record. But I was disappointed."