Date-stamped : 02 Jan96 - 14:35 MURALITHARAN DEFENDS HIS ACTION, VOWS TO FIGHT MELBOURNE, Dec 30 - Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Mural- itharan is determined to save his cricket career by proving he does not cheat by throwing the ball, the Australian newspaper reported on Satur- day. Muralitharan, 23, has vowed to prove his innocence after being no-balled seven times for throwing by umpire Darrell Hair dur- ing the second test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Tuesday. "I know in my mind that I am not chucking so I can fight for that. I have some points in human rights to fight my case,`` Mural- itharan told The Australian. Muralitharan, speaking for the first time since the controver- sy erupted, said he wanted to prove he was a legitimate bowler to protect the integrity of his existing achievements in taking 81 test wickets in 23 tests. "It`s very embarrassing. If I can`t play any more cricket at test level or any level, then I go back home and all the peo- ple will say, all the people will think in their mind, that I have chucked and taken 81 wickets in tests. "They will think that I have cheated this game. Because of that I don`t want to leave it. Even if I close my career I will fight for my human rights because I have done nothing wrong in this,`` he said. Hair, one of Australia`s two representatives on the Interna- tional Cricket Council`s (ICC) international panel of umpires, called Muralitharan seven times in three overs. The experience has prompted the off-spinner to contemplate re- tirement from cricket, the paper said. "Sometimes I am thinking better to give up the cricket and go back to my family and my father`s business. Not to play cricket again,`` he said. "I was very surprised you know. Because I was playing my 23rd test and had bowled about 6,000 deliveries and nobody had called me re- garding my action.`` Muralitharan said his unorthodox action was the result of a natural condition that prevents him from straightening his arm. Under cricket rules, it is this movement of the arm that determines whether a player has thrown the ball rather than bowled it. "My arm is born like that. I can`t change my action. If you cannot straighten your arm, how can you bowl with a different ac- tion?`` he said. "For me it is not suspect. It`s just that I am a very dif- ferent kind of bowler to other off-spin bowlers. That`s why they think I`m chucking.`` Muralitharan was unhappy at the timing of Hair`s ruling -- the first day of a high-profile test match in front of more than 50,000 spectators. "Why didn`t they tell me between games that I cannot bowl be- cause they think I am throwing? Nobody has called me for throw- ing any- where in the world. "Darrell Hair has done my matches (before). Why shouldn`t he call then. Because I am not changing my action. The same as I did in those matches was the same as I did in this. "If they had done it in 1992 after my debut in Australia, then okay, I would think then that I must have done something wrong. Now I have played 23 tests and taken 81 wickets. "I will try to fight for myself but if I lose, okay, I stop my cricket career, that`s all. I can`t go further,`` Muralitharan added. Source:: Lake House/Lanka Internet Services Contributed by vg (vpg0001@jove.acs.unt.edu)