Murali to bowl final delivery for Hambantota 2018

Muttiah Muralitharan, the most successful bowler in the history of cricket, is to play a key role in Sri Lanka’s Hambantota 2018 bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Now retired from international cricket, Murali (39) seemingly has one more special delivery up his sleeve for Sri Lanka. He is part of a delegation travelling to the Caribbean next week to make a crucial final presentation to those who will vote for either Hambantota or Australia’s Gold Coast.

The decision will be made at the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) general assembly in St Kitts & Nevis next Friday, 11 November, at 6 p.m. local time.

Muralitharan, rated the ‘Leading Cricketer in the World’ in both 2000 and 2006 by Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, said: “I still remember the glory of winning the Cricket World Cup in 1996. We (Sri Lanka) will have the same glory by being the host city of the Commonwealth Games in 2018.”

It was against Australia that a 20-year old Muralitharan made his Test debut on 28 August 1992. Now, after a 19-year playing career in which he has taken a world-record 800 Test wickets and world-record 534 One Day International (ODI) wickets, he is looking to bowl-over the voting Commonwealth nations and territories with what has been dubbed ‘the life-changing bid’.

Hambantota 2018 Organising Committee Co-Chairman Ajith Nivard Cabraal said: “Murali is a sporting legend. Cricket’s highest wicket-taker in both forms of the international game; the first player to take 1,000 wickets combined. We hope he can help deliver another first – a Sri Lankan Commonwealth Games that itself will deliver so much for our unified nation and our people.”

The news comes as another sporting legend, Kenyan Kipchoge ‘Kip’ Keino – who is standing for CGF vice-president in St Kitts – claimed the race to host the Games will come down to the final presentations. Mike Fennell, President of the CGF, stated he has no preference and will be happy whatever the outcome as he feels the candidates “could both stage fantastic competitions”.

Muralitharan is used to making the last delivery count. At the start of his last Test match, he stood eight short of 800 Test wickets. At the fall of the ninth wicket of India’s second innings he still needed one wicket to reach the milestone. After 90 minutes of resistance he finally dismissed the last batsman on not only the final ball of the over – but the last of his entire Test career. He averaged over six wickets per Test and holds several world records and firsts.

As well as the most career wickets in both Test and ODI cricket, he has the unique distinction of taking 10 or more wickets in a match against all other nine Test playing nations. He has taken 10 wickets in a Test match a world-record 22 times and also has the most five-wicket hauls in an innings at Test level (67); Australia’s Shane Warne follows, having performed the feat 37 times.

Bowled by Muralitharan – ‘b Muralitharan’ – is the most common dismissal in Test cricket, excluding run-out. Yet it is as much for his off-field contributions that Muralitharan is seen as the ideal flag-bearer for a bid that promises to rejuvenate the tear-drop shaped nation following its reconciliation.

He serves as a Trustee of the Foundation of Goodness, a charitable organisation set-up in 1999 by his Manager Kushil Gunasekera. It supports local communities through a range of projects across areas including children and education, healthcare, livelihoods, sport and the environment.

“For most cricket fans, he was simply a great bowler. For Sri Lankans, he was and remains so much more,” said Cabraal, also Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

Cabraal believes hosting the Games will see the country stake claims for medals in the same way it has done extraordinarily well in cricket.Admitted as a Test-plating nation in 1981, Sri Lanka won the World Cup just 15 years later (1996) and finished runners-up in both 2007 and this year, when Hambantota itself staged two matches. Now this world-renowned passion for cricket is turning to a wide range of other sports, he adds.