Clearly something has to change
Wisden Cricinfo Staff17-Dec-2003Clearly something has to change. Sri Lanka’s most precious natural resource,Muttiah Muralitharan, is in danger of being mined into an early retirement.His bowling shoulder, packed with ice after every practice session andmassaged continuously by the fitness team, is hurting more each week.Natural joints can only take so much wear and tear. The longevity of hiscareer, and the size of the world record he eventually posts, depends uponSri Lanka’s second spinner in particular and Sri Lanka’s support bowlers ingeneral.Muralitharan’s workload during this England tour has been phenomenal.Already, in the first two Test matches, he’s bowled 164 overs out of the 459sent down by Sri Lanka – that’s a 36% share of the workload. His totalseries figures are: 164-79-217-19. Not bad!The problem that Hashan Tillakaratne faces is that his spin wizard isbowling quite brilliantly. England’s batters had arrived in Sri Lankaquietly confident of decoding his trickery, but they now admit that he’sbeen fiendishly difficult to read from the hand. The ball has been spittingboth ways and all the batsman to score runs have lived charmed lives -except perhaps Michael Vaughan who played him expertly in Kandy.But Muralitharan appeared to wane during that final day. He bowled 56 out ofthe 140 overs in the innings. It was an unreasonable and unacceptableworkload. Although he loves to bowl and bowl, Tillakaratne should have usedhis support bowlers more.Chaminda Vaas’s workload in the final two sessions was, for example,strangely light: nine overs spread over 4 ½ hours in the field. At first wethought he was poorly after he vomited on the outfield at the end of his runjust after lunch. It turns out though that that was merely a badly timedhelping of fruit salad. Tillakaratne surely missed a trick.The unwillingness to use Dinusha Fernando – who was given just one over withthe second new ball after Tillakaratne delayed taking it until the finalhour – was also surprising. One wondered how many overs Dilhara Fernandowould have bowled – certainly more is the answer. I have no doubt thatDilhara will play in Colombo on his home ground.© AFPBut it was the relative ineffectiveness of the second spinner, KumarDharmasena, which caused most concern. Dharmasena’s offbreaks providedEngland’s batters with few problems. Perhaps, with hindsight, Upul Chandanashould have played? The legspinner had in fact been announced in the finalXI at the pre-match team meeting but a last-minute change on the morning ofthe match saw Dharmasena being drafted in.The more controversial view is that neither should have played. Instead,Rangana Herath, a left-arm spinner that has been hauling in wickets in SouthAfrica and India with the A team, should have been in the squad.The argument against his selection is that Sanath Jayasuriya provides asound slow left arm option. But such thinking is flawed. You don’t pickvariation for variation’s sake; you pick the best bowlers. Jayasuriya is auseful spinner, someone who is capable of nicking out a wicket or too, butis not in the same class as Herath. On the evidence of the first two tests,Chandana and Dharmasena are also no match.Unfortunately we also have to be honest, Herath is no world-beater. When hebowls in tandem with Muralitharan he will no doubt look ordinary. The factis that Muralitharan is truly exceptional. His standards are so far abovemost bowlers in the world that comparisons are unfair. Nevertheless, Herathmay well be a better bet, possibly even for the third Test in Colombo.In the long-term though, the selectors must intensify their search forbowlers. The Muralitharan era is, I’m afraid, slowly drawing to a close. Hebelieves he can last until 2007, but with his current workload burnout mighthappen much sooner. A premature end to his career would be a travesty. SriLanka must protect him.