LONDON, July 6: With help of an Indian doctor, Test cricket's highest wicket-taker Muttiah Muralitharan is out to prove experts wrong that flexion plays a part in imparting spin while he bowls his doosra or the ball that moves away from right-handers.
Murali, who skipped Sri Lanka's tour to Australia in an apparent protest to Australian Prime Minister John Howard's remark that he was a chucker, demonstrated at Shenley Cricket Centre in Hertforshire here that flexion plays no part in imparting spin when he bowls either doosra or orthodox off-breaks.
Sri Lankan, who has 527 Test wickets, first bowled in a turf net at a competent club cricketer to show how much turn he generates normally, then with an impediment, which weighed a one pound (approx 2.5 kg), according to a report in The Independent.
The impediment, developed by an Indian doctor and comprising three steel bars wrapped in nylon, was strapped across his elbow, thus making the joint immovable. While 32-year-old accepted brace is not scientific, at least when he is wearing it and it immobilises elbow, he proved that it is his shoulder which supplies his pace and his wrist which imparts spin, and that flexion does not play any part in his action.
When he was tested in laboratory conditions at University of Western Australia earlier this year, 12 cameras were set up to monitor every part of the bowler during delivery. Murali was found to have 14 degrees of flexion. Intense work with biomechanics and coaches has reduced that to 10 degrees. -Agencies
