The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Murali keeping his options open

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Wednesday, Feb 15, 2006

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Sport - Cricket

Murali keeping his options open

BRISBANE: Muttiah Muralitharan says he has not decided on whether he will ever play in Australia again, amid continuous crowd taunts over his scrutinised bowling action.

Former Sri Lankan skipper Arjuna Ranatunga has urged Muralitharan to stop playing in Australia because of crowd provocation in the triangular one-day cricket series.

But Muralitharan has sidestepped the issue on whether this would be the last time he plays in Australia. Sri Lanka is scheduled to tour here in two years, but he has refused to slam the door on the possibility of coming back.

"I am not sure because we are not playing for another two years so I don't know what will happen in between," Muralitharan told reporters late on Monday. "It is possible but I have not really thought about it. Everything is the same. Nothing changes."

Muralitharan, 33, who has 584 Test wickets and more than 400 in one-dayers, underwent voluntary tests in Perth earlier this month in a bid to prove that his elbow flexion was below the allowed 15-degree limit.

But the boorish behaviour of Australian crowds, who roar "chucker" and "no ball" every time he approached the bowling crease, is wearing thin.

Ranatunga, now a deputy minister in Sri Lanka, was reported last weekend as saying of the situation: "If I had been the captain or manager I would have asked Murali to pack his bags and go home and take some rest as there is a limit to everything. Ranatunga once protested and almost walked out with his team from the Adelaide ground in 1999 after Australian umpire Ross Emerson no-balled Muralitharan in a one-day international.

"Murali had decided not to tour Australia two years back but reversed his decision when he wanted to play a charity match for Asian tsunami victims. But if this is the reception he's getting, there's no point in going there over and over again," Ranatunga added. — AFP

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