Muttiah Muralitharan

Profile:

Muttiah Muralitharan, son of a successful hill-country confectioner, schooled at St Anthony's College, a private school run by Benedictine monks, began his cricketing career as a medium pace bowler, but on the advice of his school coach, Sunil Fernando, he took up off-spin when he was fourteen years old. His prolific wicket-taking exploits soon attracted interest and in 1991 he was selected for the Sri Lanka A tour of England before making his Test debut against Australia in 1991-92. His career was later threatened by allegations of chucking when he was called twice for throwing the 1995/6 tour of Australia. The International Cricket Council (ICC) later cleared him after detailed scientific research showed his action to be legal, despite the optical illusion of throwing created by a permanently locked elbow and an abnormally flexible wrist. He grew in confidence after the controversy, unveiling greater variations, including a dangerous 'floater,' and becoming a more complete bowler. He was the quickest to 400 Test wickets - in matches and years - and now lies in fifth position in the all-time list with 430 wickets at 23.32.