Sri Lanka management defend Muralitharan after Holding comments

Sri Lanka's team management have been forced to defend the bowling action of Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan again after fresh doubts were cast upon his action by International Cricket Council (ICC) bowling advisor Michael Holding.

Holding, commenting in April's issue of Wisden Cricket Asia Monthly, claimed to be in "110% agreement" with former Indian spin bowler Bishen Bedi, who last month likened Muralitharan's action to that of a javelin thrower.

"The laws are very specific," said Holding. "A bowler's arm, once it gets to shoulder height, should stay straight until delivery.

"If it's bent, then it should remain bent to the same degree and should never alter. The law says nothing about hyper-extended bent or abnormal bent."

The Sri Lankan team management are disappointed that the issue of Muralitharan's action has resurfaced nearly three years after being cleared by an ICC panel of bowling experts, when video evidence showed his bowling arm to be permanently bent due to a congenital deformity.

"Bedi's remarks are really disappointing and disturbing," Sri Lanka captain Sanath Jayasuriya said. "He should not have said that after Muralitharan's action was cleared by the International Cricket Council."

Jayasuriya believes that Muralitharan, who took 80 wickets last year in 12 Test matches and reached 400 Test wickets in record time, is suffering now because of his recent success.

"It is an attempt to trigger disturbance for a bowler who has been performing excellently," said Jayasuriya Sri Lanka coach Dav Whatmore also believes Bedi's comments to be unwarranted but doubts whether they will have an impact on Muralitharan.

"It disappointed us no end but Muralitharan is a great fighter and a great bowler so he would not be distracted by such remarks," Whatmore said.

New team manager Chandra Schaffter criticised Bedi for stirring controversy.

"Not very many people take Bedi seriously, I think he thrives on controversies and that's his style," Schaffter said. "I don't see any problems for Muralitharan in future as far as his bowling action is concerned."