April 28, 2007	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 10, 1428

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BRIDGETOWN, April 27: Ever since Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan was called for throwing by Australian umpires in the mid-1990s, relations between the two teams have been less than cordial.

The rivalry will be renewed when Mahela Jayawardene's Sri Lankans clash with Ricky Ponting's world champions in what could be a needle World Cup final here on Saturday.

Sri Lanka were considered a talented, but soft side when they made their debut as qualifiers in the 1975 World Cup in England, but their image changed when Arjuna Ranatunga was named captain in 1988.

Australia were the first to get familiar with Sri Lanka's new face when Ranatunga protested their umpires' decision to question ace off-spinner Muralitharan's bowling action.

A war of words between the Sri Lanka captain and now-retired Australia leg-spinner Shane Warne also added fuel to the fire in coming years.

Muralitharan once shunned touring Australia after his bitter experience with cricket fans who made his life uncomfortable with their repeated taunts over his bowling action.

The relations between the two sides became worse when Australia refused to play in Sri Lanka in the 1996 World Cup, citing security reasons.

But the Aussies were unable to completely avoid the islanders.

Ranatunga's Sri Lankans settled more than a score or two when they thrashed Mark Taylor's Australians by seven wickets in the day-night final at Lahore.

Not many had given Sri Lanka a chance to succeed against Australia who were then considered as formidable as they are now.

It was a tribute to Ranatunga's shrewd captaincy that he outwitted his Australian counterpart.

Ranatunga used his quartet of spinners – Muralitharan, Kumar Dharmasena, Sanath Jayasuriya and Aravinda de Silva – remarkably well against Australia's stroke-makers to restrict the opposition to 241-7.

Middle-order batsman de Silva then scored a gem of century to help his team surpass the Australian total with more than three overs to spare. He was named Man-of-the-Match.

Ranatunga himself provided the finishing touches with an unbeaten 47 in an unbroken 97-run stand for the fourth wicket with de Silva.

“We were four years ahead of ourselves in winning the World Cup,” said Ranatunga.

The Australian captain conceded that Sri Lanka were the deserving champions.

“Sri Lanka have improved a hell of a lot in the past few years in one-day cricket and they now have a game-plan – positive batting and defensive bowling,” Taylor said after his team's defeat.

Australia were swift to exact revenge when they met Sri Lanka next time in the World Cup, winning the 2003 semi-final by 48 runs at Port Elizabeth.

Sri Lanka now have six survivors from that match – Jayawardene, Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Chaminda Vaas, Russel Arnold and Muralitharan.

The current Australian side also contain six players who played in that match – skipper Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden, Andrew Symonds, Brad Hogg, Adam Gilchrist and Glenn McGrath.—AFP