So long, Murali

I must confess at the outset that I’ve never tried following you that much because you were from another country. I perhaps first noticed you during the controversies that happened in Australia where you were so ridiculously no-balled repeatedly. I am a minimalist; purely following cricket for the purity and grace bereft of the technicalities. Never felt you were a chucker. I also felt that there were many other bowlers who ‘seemed’ to chuck but were never called. Everybody agreed that you were being humiliated. You stood strong in the midst of all this. I am sure you were proud of your captain at that time.

You came back stronger from those trials. Your strike rate never went down; nor did your smile. Even at the most desperate of situations I haven’t seen you frown at an opposite batsman or your own team member. Sure, you’ve shown disappointment which is pure instinctive.

You perhaps could easily have reached 1000 wickets if you wanted to – and you know that. But you choose to leave it all in one blaze of glory - choosing your final bow, achieving 8 wickets against a pretty good Indian team and going away in a fairytale ending. Being an Indian fan, I was wishing you could take the 9th wicket and it would start raining buckets in Galle but it was never to be!

Perhaps it was fitting that your team won, weather permitting or otherwise. You always were a winner, and a very nice guy; proving once again that nice guys don’t always finish last. You are respected as a person and as a cricketer all through my country and cricket is a loser today that you aren’t playing test cricket anymore.