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| March 22, 2007 | Thursday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 2, 1428 |
How do you know it’s my last World Cup, asks Murali
PORT-OF-SPAIN, March 21: Sri Lanka off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan is in no mood to give batsmen a breather, saying he would like to play in the next World Cup in the sub-continent.“How do you know it's my last World Cup?” asked Muralitharan, who has been troubling batsmen for more than a decade with his ability to turn the ball prodigiously on any surface.
Add to it his accuracy, bounce and doosra, a delivery which spins away from the right-handers instead of coming into them like a conventional off-break, and the batsmen's plight can only be imagined.
“I might play the next World Cup because I'm 34 at the moment. In four years, I'll be 38 and spinners can go on till the age of 40. It all depends on how fit I am,” said Muralitharan.
“I'd love to play the next World Cup, because it's on home soil and that means a pretty good chance for us. The last time we played (in the sub-continent), we won it.”
The Sri Lankan spinner was a key member of Arjuna Ranatunga's squad which claimed the 1996 World Cup after beating Mark Taylor's Australians in the final at Lahore.
The Cup returns to the sub-continent in 2011, with India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as joint-hosts.
Muralitharan has been tipped to become the first bowler to grab 1,000 Test wickets after the retirement of Australian leg-spin legend Shane Warne, but he said he had not set his sights on the landmark.
“I am still going up the ladder. The last year was my best because I took 96 wickets in 11 or 12 Tests, but it (1,000 wickets) is very difficult because I have to get another 300 wickets,” said the spinner.
“It will take at least another four-five years and I need to play at least 40-45 Tests. At the moment, I am thinking only about this World Cup and taking it match by match.”
Muralitharan is behind only Warne (708) with 674 Test wickets, having claimed five or more victims in an innings 57 times and 10 or more in a match 19 times – both world records.
“There is no competition with anybody because we compete against batsmen. They bat against me and I want to get their wickets. I don't think about records or wickets or what anyone else is doing,” he said.
Muralitharan is also the only bowler with more than 1,000 wickets in international cricket, having grabbed 434 in one-dayers. But he does not believe he is the best.
“You never know. Someone will come in five or 10 year's time, or maybe next year, who will start bowling like me or better than me. Nobody thought when I started playing that I'll be the best off-spinner in the world,” he said.
Sri Lanka may have quality batsmen and bowlers, but Muralitharan believed the most important thing was how the team would perform in the middle.
“We have all come here to win and not giving any chance to others. That's the way we want to play. If things go right and we have the right combination, then we can have a good World Cup,” he said.
“The media make some teams favourites, but the game is different. Any team can beat anybody. This game is about playing just 50 overs and 15 overs can change the game. Whoever plays well on the day, will win. That's my theory.”
Muralitharan said his only aim in the World Cup was to win matches for his team by bowling consistently well.
“There are no personal goals. I always play for the team and try to bowl well. When my captain asks me to bowl, I have to make the best of the situation,” he said.—AFP
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