Sri Lankan board will allow Murali to skip tour to Australia

Mohan de Silva, the president of Sri Lanka Cricket, has said that Muttiah Muralitharan does not have to tour Australia this winter with the Sri Lankan team if he doesn't want to. This was in response to Muralitharan's comment a day ago that he may opt out of the tour in the wake of the Australian Prime Minister John Howard's comments about his action. When asked whether he thought Muralitharan was a chucker, Howard had replied, "Yes. They proved it in Perth too, with that [biomechanics video] thing."

"If Murali makes a request not to go to Australia we will definitely give him that option. We will not force him to go to a country where he is not accepted," said De Silva. "I can understand Murali's concerns after the remarks of the Australian Prime Minister. Naturally he must be hurt. He is [being] made to look a man who is not wanted at a time when he has just broken the world bowling record. Instead of showering him with accolades people [are] trying to ridicule him. It is really not accepted.

"We quite understand the situation, the trauma and mental agony Murali has gone through," continued de Silva. "It is nothing but right that we give him that choice [of not touring]. The ball is in his court whether he wants to tour Australia or not."

Murali had earlier reacted to Howard's comments with a mixture of anger and resentment. "The Prime Minister shouldn't be saying things like that. He doesn't know the facts. I will speak to our government about it [touring]. And you shouldn't be trying to make this thing political. You can't accuse people of being a chucker. It's out of line because he shouldn't be saying those things, he should be thinking of [governing] his country. It's not good enough."

Muralitharan had declared his reluctance to tour Australia during Sri Lanka's visit in 2002-03, when he had to endure constant ridicule from the Australian crowds. Sri Lanka are due to play two Tests in Australia, in Cairns and Darwin, later this year.

Meanwhile Anil Kumble, the Indian legspinner, has termed the whole controversy surrounding Muralitharan as "unfortunate and unnecessary" and asserted that Murali was the best bowler in Test cricket.

"Whatever needed to be done should have been done much earlier," said Kumble. "You can't keep pointing fingers at Murali every time he takes a wicket."