COLOMBO, July 6 Muttiah Muralitharan, the world's leading wicket-taker, will retire from Test cricket this month.

The 38-year-old Sri Lanka off-spinner will play the last test of his career against India, starting on July 18 in Galle.

Muralitharan has taken 792 wickets in 132 Tests and 515 wickets in 337 One-day Internationals. He's the world's leading wicket-taker in both forms of the game.

Sri Lanka Cricket said in a statement on Tuesday that Muralitharan held talks with the national selectors before making his decision, and had the blessing of the country's President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Muralitharan will continue to play limited-overs cricket, meaning he will be available for next year's World Cup, which is being co-hosted by Sri Lanka.

He made his test debut in 1992, against Australia in Colombo, and has since had 22 10-wicket hauls in a Test. He has taken five wickets in a test innings on a record 66 occasions and has a strike rate of 55.1.

He is seen as one of the greatest cricketers of all time, although his unusual, wristy bowling action has courted controversy.

After twice being no-balled in tests in Australia for throwing, his action was cleared by the International Cricket Council in 1996 following biochemical analysis at the University of Western Australia and at the University of Hong Kong. His bowling action was cleared again by the ICC in 1999, after he had been no-balled on the 1998-99 tour of Australia.

Despite the controversy, he piled up the records - he was the fastest bowler to take 350 Test wickets, a feat he achieved in 66 matches, and in May 2004 he became the leading wicket-taker in Test history when he overtook Courtney Walsh's tally of 519.

In December 2007, in a match against England in Kandy, Muralitharan went above Australia's Shane Warne - the spinner the Sri Lankan is often ranked alongside as the best bowler ever - in the list of the leading all-time wicket-takers, after claiming his 709th victim.

Muralitharan won the World Cup with Sri Lanka in 1996 and helped Chennai win this year's Indian Premier League final against Mumbai. —AP