Mr. S. B. Dissanayake, Minister of Youth Affairs, Sports and Rural Development, has sent the following letter to Anura Tennekoon, Secretary, Cricket Board on the chucking controversy of Muttiah Muralidharan.
1. I am concerned about the future, both immediate and long term of Muttiah Muralidharan. Muralidharan is a very popular and important player because he is emerging as the best spinner in the world and is the only Tamil player in the national cricket team and is a peace symbol. Under no circumstances can we lose his services and therefore need to `clear' him of alleged chucking controversy at the earliest.
2. We have to treat him as innocent and take every step to protect him and `clear' him of ball throwing charges, enabling him to continue his cricketing career which has many more years of exciting, competitive and victorious play.
3. While accepting and abiding by the umpires' decisions we should represent matters to ICC to `clear' him according to the rules and regulations of ICC and BCCSL.
4. I recommend that his name be included in the Wills World Cup squad before 22nd January, 1996.
5. According to regulations we should immediately send him for retraining either in UK or Australia.
6. A detailed medical scientific and physical reports would be submitted by Head of Institute of Sports Medicine Consultant Neurologist Dr. Githanjan Mendis based on `Electro Goniometer' findings of Muralidharan which will be performed by Dr. Ravindra Goonetileke, Asst. Professor at Hongkong University and Melbourne based Surgeon Dr. Buddy Reid. Dr. Reid has already done the static tests and dynamic tests will be carried out by Dr. Goonetilake along with Dr. Mendis in Australia. ICC permission had been sought for this and BCCSL is awaiting a reply. Highest medical and scientific technology will be used in preparing this report.
7. I have also discussed this matter with the Australian Cricket Board and they have consented to make representations and help us to resolve this issue.
8. Many umpires and cricketers of highest international standards have said that there is no chucking involved.
9. We should immediately embark on the above steps with a time framework of `clearing' him before the start of Wills World Cup nest month enabling him to play at the above World Cup matches.
(Daily News issue of 19.01.96)
Sri Lanka has in recent times been torn apart by what would seem to many as an uncalled for and senseless ethnic strife.
In this time of strife, where man's inhumanity to man is being
displayed, it is encouraging and pleasing to note the togetherness of
all Sri Lankans at a time when the Lankan cricketers are being unfairly
and unsportingly bashed about by the Aussies, especially the treatment
meted out to that little spinning sensation Muttiah Muralidaran.
STANDING TALL
Today all Sri Lankans are united and standing tall as one supporting the cricketers and promising to fight the good fight to clear the cricketers who are in quicksand `down under' through no fault of theirs.
Muralidaran is the odd man out. Yet as it is said, in sport there is no colour, caste, religion or creed. Muralidaran's team mates are displaying this as a shining example and are to a man with him.
Muralidaran must certainly be the most lonely man on this planet.
He has been tormented, tortured and banished as if he were a leper. He
has been branded a `chucker', a `thrower' for no fault of his. His only
fault is that he has been born with a defect in his bowling arm. That is
nature's way of doing things. So can he be lynched for that?
BY EXAMPLE
While his team mates, management and the expats in Australia are all rallying round to clear Muralidaran, leading the crusade here from the front as it were and by example is Sri Lanka's sporting Minister of Youth Affairs, Sports and Rural Development the effervescent S. B. Dissanayake.
With Dissanayake assuming office, sport in Sri Lanka hit it big.
Cricket especially saw the first ever Test victory abroad against New
Zealand. This was followed by historic Test and one-day series victories
against Pakistan in Pakistan, the pocketing of the Sharjah Cup and now
the entering of the WSC finals in Australia.
MEDICAL EXPERT
Dissanayake when he met the Aussie cricket officials, President Dennis Rogers and Graham Halbish, Chief Executive, who were here to discuss World Cup matters, expressed his concern on the Muralidaran affair. Dissanayake has promised to get the best medical experts to play for `Murali' and represent matters so that he can make the International Cricket Conference see reason.
Every Sri Lankan here to a man is with Dissanayake because they are
convinced that a great injustice has been perpetrated on Muralidaran and
they are out to right this wrong.
MOST STRIKING
What was most striking was the dedicating of the victory against the Aussies in Melbourne to Muralidaran by his team mates. Before the game they vowed that they would win that game and dedicate it to Muralidaran and this they did and in style.
After the game acting skipper Aravinda de Silva joyfully revealed this to the media. It was indeed heartening and moving and would have certainly warmed the cockles of anyone's heart.
Amidst all this sniper fire the Lankans have conducted themselves with admirable and exemplary decorum.
Muralidaran is certainly no blatant `chucker'. Being suspect does
not mean that he is guilty. His suspect action is nature's gift to him.
He is not being a cheat, or trying to get any undue advantage. He is
bowling the way his creator allowed him.
TRUE SPORTSMAN
Let him continue to play the game, like the true sportsman that he is.
What God has put together, let no man rescind.
(Daily News issue of 17.01.96)
The President of the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) Denis Rogers reassures Minister of Youth Affairs, Sports and Rural Development S. B. Disanayake that the ACB will represent matters at the International Cricket Council to resolve the chucking controversy of Muttiah Muralitheran. This assurance was given when Rogers met the Minister at the Sports Ministry in Colombo on Saturday.
The minister had a cordial discussion on future plans for cricket and on the World Cup. The minister informed ACB officials that satisfactory security arrangements will be provided in Sri Lanka for participating teams.
Regarding Muralitheran the ACB was of the view that an expert panel with medical experts should be set up to review the regulations.
ACB Chief Executive Officer Mr. Graham Halbish told the minister that the ACB is concerned about the Muralitheran affair and would cooperate with the Sri Lanka Cricket Board in resolving the issue.
It was said that Sri Lanka is awaiting permission from ICC to conduct special medical testing on Muralitheran.
The ACB also consented to help the Sri Lanka Cricket Board with equipment and cricket gear.
Australian High Commissioner, Bill Tweddell, Additional Secretary to Sports Ministry, P. A. Senaratne, Head of the Institute of Sports Medicine, Consultant Neurologist Dr. Githanjan Mendis and vice president, Cricket Board Thilanga Sumathipala also took part in the discussions.
(Daily News issue of 16.01.96)
PERTH, Australia, Jan 13 - Controversial Sri Lankan bowler Muttiah Muralitharan -- no-balled for throwing 14 times in less than three weeks -- has been filmed by high-speed cameras here as the tourists continue their bid to prove his action is legitimate.
Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga said here Saturday the footage was shot Friday at the University of Western Australia under the supervision of physical education expert Daryl Foster, one of the most successful coaches in Australian cricket history.
During his long reign as Western Australian coach, Foster guided the State to the Sheffield Shield nine times and the domestic one-day championship on six occasions.
He still coaches Kent in the English county championship.
Ranatunga said the new tests were arranged after Foster had been approached by Sri Lankan vice-captain Aravinda de Silva, who played with Kent last year Muralitharan also spent five weeks with Kent to gain experience of English conditions.
In the tests, experts from the university's department of human movement captured Muralitharan's action from six angles as he bowled his off-spinners for more than an hour.
The 23-year-old bowled in a singlet (vest), leaving his arm bare so the camera could have an uninterrupted view of his shoulder, elbow and wrist.
Ranatunga said the tests were the latest move in the tourists' bid to prove Muralitharan did not throw.
The film was taken at speeds of up to 200 frames a second. Video is usually shot at 25 frames a second.
Foster said the film had been sent to Melbourne for processing and results should be known next week. "Then we will be able to make some judgments on the legality of his action,'' Foster said.
"The Sri Lankans will get a full report on the tests. I do not believe Muralitharan throws, but that is just a personal opinion.''
Sri Lanka are keen to have the youngster cleared quickly so he can be included in their 14-man squad for the World Cup one-day tournament to be held in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka from the middle of next month.
Muralitharan was no-balled seven times in three overs by umpire Darrell Hair on the opening day of the second Test in Melbourne on December 26.
Eight days ago, umpire Ross Emerson called him another seven times in a World Series one-day game against the West Indies in Brisbane. (AFP)
(Sunday Observer issue of 14.01.96)
Incensed Sri Lankan community in Sydney have threatened to take legal action against the two Australian umpires who have accused Muthiah Muralitharan of `chucking'.
`The Sydney Morning Herald' reported on Monday: "The row over the 23-year-old off-spinner's action now threatens to escalate into a legal and diplomatic stoush, with prominent Sri Lankan community leaders accusing Australia of a thinly-veiled racial conspiracy against the game's minnows''.
The paper reported that a wealthy Sydney businessman Lakshman Jayaweeera had pledged A$100,000 to cover the costs of bringing defamation actions against the Sydney umpire Darrell Hair and his West Australian colleague Ross Emerson, who have both no-balled Muralitharan for throwing.
Jayaweera was quoted by the newspaper: "Ninety percent of the Sri Lankans in Australia are professional people and we can easily find whatever it costs to bring this action. Everyone is deeply upset. Can you imagine this happening to Shane Warne or a bowler from England? - of course not''.
The president of Sydney's Sri Lanka Lions SC, Kularatna de Silva was quoted by the paper: "There are 100,000 Sri Lankans living in Australia. This is our adopted country but many are ashamed to say it at the moment. This is a conspiracy by Australia and they think they can get away with it because we are only poor little Sri Lanka''.
(Daily News issue of 13.01.96)
Melbourne, Wednesday - In Australia, as in the West today, fundamentalism is not only suspect, it is detested. In this view (some) Muslims are the epitome of contemporary fundamentalism. Yet, reposing righteously in this anti-fundamentalist terrain is a species of fundamentalism. In the sunny fields of cricket these purists have assassinated Muttiah Muralitharan by the Book. Their scimitar is both sharp and uncompromising.
The rules of the game decree that bowlers cannot throw. The meaning of this regulation is to deny them unfair advantage. One can wrist bowl, sling bowl, cut bowl, spin bowl - but one cannot throw bowl. That would be chucking; dirty. The intent and meaning on this point is quite clear. And reasonable enough.
But as with all bureaucratic rules there are grey areas, ambiguities. What about push bowl? Sort of push bowl? Sort of bowl bowl? What about arms that are deformed, withered or otherwise abnormal?
Blessed and handicapped with a bent elbow and a rubber wrist, Muttiah Muralitharan is in this grey area. His arrival in the Antipodes in recent years has immediately generated controversy. Both Australians and New Zealanders, as we know, are forthright people: they speak their mind. Muralitharan's action has inspired purist comment, fundamentalist views.
Indeed, as events have turned out, Muralitharan has helped to sort out the chaff from the wheat, the purists from the pragmatists. The latter look to the meaning of the law: if there is no manifest advantage and no manifest throwing, then, the benefit of the doubt goes to the bowler.
On this reading, then, Bruce Yardley, Steve Dunne and Allan Border are pragmatists. Whereas Ashley Mallett is not: Muralitharan, he says, throws. He is, like many Antipodean spectators from all walks of life who have decided against Muralitharan, a puritanical cricketing fundamentalist.
Fundamentalists do not know the art of compromise. Their righteous zealotry is piously strict. They go by the Book. Darrel Hair has emerged as the Ayatollah of cricket purists. His fatwah - pronounced before a stunned crowd of some 55,000 on December 26, 1995 - has guillotined Muralitharan's arm and placed the lad on the shelves of history.
He - and his backers in high places behind the scenes - have pursued the letter of the law rather than its meaning. They have not attended to Muralitharan's unique anatomy: a plasticine wrist and 32 percent deficiency at the elbow. They have relied on the Book and denied the existence of grey areas.
Their epistemology is based on either or assumptions: every phenomenon is either black or white; there are no grey areas. There is one Truth. The Book reigns. They kill the joy of cricket. They are puritans. So, Q.E.D. Muralitharan.
(Daily News issue of 12.01.96)
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