The Hindu : International : Muralitharan has a narrow escape

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 29, 2004

International

International

Muralitharan has a narrow escape

GALLE, DEC. 28. The Sri Lankan off-spinner, Muttiah Muralitharan, is "lucky to be alive" after narrowly missing the tsunami.

Muralitharan, recovering from shoulder surgery while his team-mates tour New Zealand, was in Galle over the weekend, handing out cricket bats to underprivileged children with his manager. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, 20 minutes after Muralitharan drove out of Galle, the city was all but wiped out by the tsunami.

Muralitharan told the paper: "I had only just left Galle so I am very lucky to be alive. The wave was over 20 feet high and it went 2 km inland. A lot of our cricketers are from there and we don't know how their families are. My manager barely survived. His house is gone. Galle is totally under water and a lot of people are missing or dead. There are people everywhere screaming."

Muralitharan said that it would be difficult for him to join his teammates ahead of the first Test against New Zealand in Hamilton, which had been scheduled for January 15, given the extent of devastation.

"Something like this has never happened to my country. In my opinion, it is not the right time for cricket. I was seeing on the TV today some of the people who are alive in Galle, and there is a lot of organising to do, a lot of feeding people," he said.

— ANI

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