Muralitharan points the finger at Aussie seamers

Muttiah Muralitharan has struck back after years of suspicion about the legality of his bowling action, by accusing three of Australia's leading pacemen of being chuckers.

Last week, an ICC panel announced that, after extensive studies of the actions of the leading bowlers in international cricket, up to 99% of fast bowlers occasionally exceed their permitted 10-degree leverage.

Murali, whose entire career has been clouded by accusations of an illegal action, has latched onto these findings, and in an interview with Melbourne's Radio Sport 927 he pointed the finger at three of Australia's finest - Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee.

"McGrath is bowling about 13 [degrees], Gillespie about 12 and Brett Lee about 14 or 15," he said, "so what about them then, the Australian players? And what about other international players?"

Murali, whose world-record tally of 532 wickets was recently surpassed by Shane Warne, has endured a rough time at the hands of Australia's fans and umpires over the past decade. He has been no-balled for throwing twice, in 1995-96 and 1998-99, and earlier this year he declined to travel to Darwin and Cairns for a two-Test series, because of the abuse that he expected.

"The [Australian] people are not a problem, it is the cricket-playing people that are a problem, they are a little bit ignorant," added Murali. "When you perform well from an ordinary country rather than a big country, then people think there is something wrong. That's not my problem, they have to clarify themselves."

Unsurprisingly, Murali's comments did not go down well with Cricket Australia, which hit back in an official statement. "In standing behind the good name of current players such as McGrath, Gillespie and Lee, we call on all observers to examine the detail of the ICC's draft findings. This includes the ICC's own comment that it is false to suggest its expert bowling panel's work has labelled a number of great bowlers as chuckers."