Sri Lanka’s world record bowler Muttiah Muralitharan said on Thursday he would quit Test cricket next year, but continue to play limited-overs cricket.
The 37-year-old off-spinner, with a record 770 Test and 507 one-day wickets, announced that he would play his last two Tests in the series against the West Indies at home in November next year.
“I am not going to play for a long time,” Muralitharan told reporters after the first one-day international against Pakistan, in which he was named man of the match after taking two wickets for 32 runs off 15 balls.
PHOTO: AP
“Next year’s West Indies series will be the last two Test matches I will be playing,” Muralitharan said. “That’s the right time for me because I will be 38 years old. The 2011 World Cup is my aim, but I will enjoy playing Twenty20 cricket for a few more years.”
Muralitharan missed the recent three-Test series against Pakistan because of a knee injury.
“The hardest game in cricket is Tests,” he said. “The hardest part is you have to take wickets and get batsmen out, and sometimes you have to spend two days in the field.”
The 127-Test veteran said he had been working hard on his fitness as age caught up with him.
“I put in a lot of effort in the last one month to be fit,” he said. “I trained very hard with the physio and trainers who helped me to get through the difficult period. I also enjoyed the rest. I trained hard, although I knew my knee was not right. The doctors said that I can definitely play with the injury for about one to two years, but in the end when I finish [they] will have to operate on it.”
Muralitharan, who once said he was aiming to take 1,000 Test wickets, said the few Tests played by Sri Lanka in recent years had made it difficult for him to achieve that milestone.
“If I am to get 1,000 Test wickets we have to play Test matches regularly,” he said. “These days, we play fewer Test matches.”
Sri Lanka play two Tests against New Zealand next month and three in India at the end of the year. Next year Sri Lanka just have the two Tests against the West Indies.
Muralitharan, who made his Test debut against Australia in 1992, passed Australian Shane Warne’s record of 708 Test wickets in December 2007.
He also overtook pace man Wasim Akram’s record one-day tally of 502 wickets earlier this year.
BUMRAH WATCH: Captain Jasprit Bumrah left the SCG for scans for back spasms and although he returned to the ground, there was no word on if he would play Rishabh Pant’s blistering counterattack yesterday capped a chaotic second day of the fifth and final Test between Australia and India, with 15 wickets falling and the star bowler of the series leaving the Sydney Cricket Ground with an ambulance escort. Yet the Border-Gavaskar trophy still remains very much in the balance as India reached 141-6, holding a 145-run lead over Australia with three days remaining. “Low-scoring games like this, it just heightens the pressure within it, so long way still to go,” Australia coach Andrew McDonald said. “There’s gonna be plenty of cricket, so we’ll see what happens.” Australia were bowled out for
Five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek yesterday beat Elena Rybakina in straight sets to take Poland into the final of the mixed-teams United Cup with victory over Kazakhstan. Last year’s runners-up face the US today for the title in Sydney after they beat the Czech Republic in the other semi-final. “This win makes me really proud,” Swiatek said after seeing off Rybakina 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 to give Poland an unassailable 2-0 lead in the tie. It was a statement of intent from the world number two with the first major of the year to start on Jan. 12. “It is perfect preparation for the
Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien and Jiang Xinyu of China yesterday won the women’s doubles title at the ASB Classic in Auckland, while Naomi Osaka retired from the women’s singles final with an abdominal injury. Second seeds Wu and Jiang defeated Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic and Sabrina Santamaria of the US 6-3, 6-4 on ASB Tennis Centre’s Stadium Court in 1 hour, 5 minutes. The WTA 250 victory was 25-year-old Wu’s second WTA Tour title, after winning the 2023 Hua Hin Championships in Thailand with Taiwanese partner Chan Hao-ching. Later that year, Wu and Taiwan’s Hsu Yu-hsiou won the mixed doubles gold at the World
SHORT-HANDED: Reigning champions the Boston Celtics were without stars Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porzingis, but they still downed the Timberwolves Oklahoma City on Thursday stretched the NBA’s best winning streak to 13 games with a home victory, while reigning champions the Boston Celtics held on for a last-shot triumph at Minnesota. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had game highs of 29 points and eight assists to spark the Thunder over the Los Angeles Clippers 116-98, improving the Western Conference leaders to 28-5. The Thunder’s winning streak is the longest since the team relocated from Seattle after the 2007-2008 season. “It’s just being present, going day by day, working on ourselves, and I think we’re doing a good job on that,” said Isaiah Hartenstein, who added 11
RSS