Taking a 5-for in his last Test, and a total of 800 Test wickets, a peak no other man in the 134 year history of Test cricket has scaled, Murali has gone out it in a style befitting his glittering career.  The achievements of the man are staggering.  And it is simply not the number of wickets he has taken but the fact that he has taken them in bunches, 67 5-fors, 22 times over 10 wickets in a match and all at an average and strike rate that is unheard of for a spinner, 22 odd runs, and 55 or so balls per wicket. 

He overshadows all bowlers, much the same as his contemporary Sachin Tendulkar overshadows all batsmen by the sheer volume of his genius.  It was indeed fitting that one of the wickets Murali claimed in his last match was that of Tendulkar.   Yet the greatness of Muralitharan is much more than mere statistics.  He has brought a dignity and a joie de vivre to cricket that represents the true spirit of the game.   His tail end batting, always with a huge smile on his face, or his enthusiastic diving around the ground even at the ripe old age of nearly forty, were only the most visible aspect of this generosity of spirit.

Other instances of his magnanimity include his smilingly forgiving umpire Darrel Hair despite Hair almost derailing his career before it got going. Hair controversialy called him for throwing seven times in three overs while Murali bowled from his end, during the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne in 1995.  Calling a no-ball for throwing has always been the job of the leg umpire, and Hair's self-important flaunting of the rule, moved even the legendary Sir Donald Bradman to question the umpire's motives.  The Don, by the way, was a huge supporter of Murali and found nothing wrong with his action, a stamp of approval from a source much more meaningful than petty ICC officials. 

When Murali's captain Arjuna Ranatunga insisted that Sri Lanka protest the shocking actions of the ICC official the ICC subjected Murali to various tests including one where he bowled with his arm in a cast, and another where he bowled shirtless with electrodes attached to his body, making him look more like a lab rat than one of the premiere spin bowlers in the game, to prove their officials were right.  The tests proved otherwise and Murali was cleared. 

But that was not the end of it and later he was subjected to further humiliation when the biased ICC Match Referee Chris Broad pulled him up for bowling the doosra, and outlawed him from doing so.  Murali was once again subjected to testing,  during which the ICC much to its chagrin found that bowlers such as Brett Lee and Glenn Mcgrath as well as over 99% of others all were technically “chucking” as their elbow flexion was greater than the arbitrary limits they had imposed.  The ICC promptly changed the limits, to ensure that their limits matched reality.  Yet, Murali has been unfairly tagged as the one who neccesitated the change.   

Never was the saying “To err is human to forgive divine” more apt than in the case of Murali.  More evidence of Murali’s generous spirit is how he helped out his fellow countrymen in the aftermath of the Tsunami of 2004.  He spearheaded the relief effort in such a passionate manner that Charlie Austin, the journalist, who worked closely with Murali during that time was moved to say “They hoped for an ambassador, they got a crusader.”  This conclusion was based on incidents such as the following one Austin recalled.  He wrote “When a police official tried to redirect some of the 90 tonnes of food into the government’s own stores, Murali took the lead and dismissed the policeman brusquely, insisting the food was going to the people and nowhere near a government warehouse.”   This incident nicely sums up Muttiah Muralitharan the man.

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