A googly for Murali

Shane Warne, that genius of a leg-spinner, is proving to be a far better exponent of the googly in real life. The googly is half-truth of a delivery, where the leg spinner leads batsmen to believe that the ball would be bowled normally. But at the last moment he subtly alters the release to impart a reverse spin on it. It resembles the hoax of a magician, or an unverifiable statement from a crooked political man. Precisely the imagery invoked by his latest controversial statement expressing disgust for the lack of opportunities for him to pick up cheap wickets unlike ‘some blokes’.

The comment was disguised so as to communicate a loathing for such wickets, but the bitterness of expression betrays an underlying insinuation that he has started wanting them badly in order to stay ahead of all (or maybe one) competition. Forever.

Warne has needlessly raised the issue. Perhaps he craves to lose a few inches of lofty standing. The point was triggered off with intent reminiscent of launching a missile that seeks its designated target and signals the beginning of a war. It must have been as delicious a taunt to the itching tongue of Shane as it was useless to his knowledgeable admirers who check out on such stats for themselves while rating the two - Shane Warne and the intended target of his gibe, Muttiah Muralitharan.

In the process Warne conveniently forgot the flip side of it. A look at the direct comparison provided in the above link tells the story. After Warne's salvo there will always be enough Murali supporters eager to rattle off a number of key areas where Warne has been found short of Murali’s achievements.

It is somewhat like Sachin Tendulkar calling a press conference to point out that Brian Charles Lara gets to bat in more innings owing to his team’s batting collapses and hence gets to cross Border’s tally first while he (Sachin) owns the better figures in the ‘100s’ and ‘batting average’ columns! Controversy thy not-so-new name is Shane Keith Warne.

The timing of the comment is equally inappropriate, as Murali has once again trapped 16 Indian wickets in 2½ Test matches (with inconsequential support from his fast bowlers barring Vaas) to gift himself some genuinely honourable figures for any spinner against the Indians. How we wish that as a practitioner of the same trade Warne had come out with generous applause, for no one would appreciate the magnitude of such collections against that opposition more than him.

Dishing out stats at the fag end of careers is an affliction hitherto known to be common only in the sub-continent. The 36-year-old leg-spinner has to sit back and come to terms with certain facts. Muralitharan has some shortcomings in his record, and those are almost as numerous as Warne’s own. Warne may even find himself smiling wryly if he realises the delicious irony of the two careers. Two hugely different sets of circumstances, combined with the remarkable adaptation of two prodigiously talented but radically different spinners to those circumstances, are contributing handsomely to their ever-swelling tallies.

Murali sometimes collects cheap wickets from the minnows, while Warne once enjoyed the periodical free lunch of long-established yet mediocre middle-rung teams left half-dead by the best batsmen and greatest fast bowlers in the world, not to mention vulnerability against spin.

Murali has the demon of suspicious action to contend with, and yet Australian fast bowlers cannot be faulted if they secretly vote out their old pal in favour of having Murali in the team if they are allowed the option ahead of a series against India.

Murali is lucky enough to bowl unchanged from one end, just as Warne is blessed with bowling back up that allows him to come back fresher with renewed rip in spell after lethal spell several times a day. In short, Murali gets to take home more wickets per Test by virtue of bowling more overs whereas Warne stays well preserved to play Test cricket far longer.

Exploring another angle on the above issue, Murali scalps some extra batsmen that would have otherwise gone to the other end if Sri Lanka had sustained decency in bowling there, while Warne snares a few such when strangulated batsmen see him – a bowler with 650 wickets – as their only hope of getting among the runs after McGrath, Gillespie and Kasprowicz keep the scoreboard frozen for ages. The aforesaid irony is complete in this case as exactly opposite team circumstances are producing similar results for the two individuals!

All in all a real wrong 'un it was from Shane Warne, and irrespective of whether it is deposited at its rightful place outside the playing arena we can only hope that Shane is shaking his head on his walk back to the bowling mark, just as we are used to seeing after one slides off the back of his palm. Shane Warne is a champion with no parallel, and more than his or some other bloke’s final wicket tally that should be enough for all of us.