The pied piper of Kandy

Muttiah Muralitharan has been Sri Lanka's strike bowler for the last 15 years. And in this period, he has amassed over 1,100 international wickets. Without him, the Sri Lankan bowling attack would depend only on Chaminda Vaas and would come up woefully short. He has shouldered the burden on taking Sri Lanka to their current status single-handedly.

One of the members of the winning 1996 team, Murali, as he is affectionately known, has been a destroyer of innings! But it's not just wickets that he takes to destroy teams. His economy rate is an equally impressive figure. Given he is a spinner, he is expected to have the odd bad day, but in Murali's career, these have been few and far between.

Murali has played in three World Cups and the best was obviously in 1996. In all, he has taken 30 wickets in 21 appearances at just 23.10 per wicket. And remember, the conditions have not always been suitable for off-spin bowling, especially in England and South Africa.

One of the true characters of the game, Murali has suffered the wrath of the ICC and been subjected to much accusations from Australia for his action. But most believe this was a result of being good enough to challenge Warne's supremacy. Whatever the reason, Murali suffered but he also found strong supporters in former captain Arjuna Ranatunga and other senior players within Sri Lanka and outside.

With age, Murali has had to face many an injury problem and this has affected his effectiveness. Since January 2006, he has played in 31 ODIs and picked up only 39 wickets at 29.84. Mind you, these numbers are not bad at all, but for Murali, who picks up about 1.7 wickets per ODI, 1.25 is far too low! And when one compares his career average of 23.07 with that over the last year and more, the difference is even more apparent.

The West Indian pitches may just prove to be the perfect foil for Murali and his style of bowling. And in what will certainly be his last World Cup, he will be hoping to taste the success he had in 1996 one last time.

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