Muralitharan to retire after 2007 World Cup

Muttiah Muralitharan wants to end his career on a high note © AFP

Muttiah Muralitharan, the world's highest Test wicket-taker, has said that he wants to go out of the game on a high note, and cited the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean as his swan song.

"I want to play till the next World Cup and try to win it and go off on a high note when I am retiring," Muralitharan said after becoming the new record holder. "The world record means a lot to me and for Sri Lanka, but winning the World Cup in 1996, I would say, was the biggest achievement of my career. The World Cup was something different. You can't forget that easily. It was tremendous. It is bigger than my individual performance in Harare."

At Harare, Muralitharan broke Courtney Walsh's world record of 519 wickets from 132 Tests - which had stood for three years - when he took eight wickets in the first Test against Zimbabwe on Sunday. Sri Lanka won the Test by an innings and 240 runs inside three days to take a 1-0 lead in the two-Test series. But he was aware that his mark would be surpassed. "Records are meant to be broken. Somebody else may break my record. It won't stay for a long time."

But for the present moment he can relish the 'world champion' title, despite the fact that his bowling action has always been clouded with uncertainty.

Muralitharan's doosra had been reported to the ICC by Chris Broad as being illegal and not within the laws of the game. But since the incident flared up at the end of the three-Test series against Australia in March, Muralitharan made perhaps his first public statement on it.

"The doosra has always been at the back of my mind. People have questioned me about it. I have done all the tests that are required and the reports have gone to the ICC. At the end of the day what matters is what the report, the expert, my cricket board and what the ICC says."

Curiously, Muralitharan's action has evoked rabid criticism or fanatical support since the first time he was called for throwing in Australia in 1995, a few months before Sri Lanka, led by Arjuna Ranatunga, beat Australia in front of a packed house at Lahore to lift the World Cup. Although Sri Lanka undertook two unsuccessful World Cup campaigns after that, Muralitharan has been devastating in the shorter game, and is gradually catching up on the 400-wicket mark. With 360 wickets in 232 matches, he lies third behind Wasim Akram (502 wickets from 356 matches) and Waqar Younis (416 wickets from 262 matches).

But it's in Tests that Muralitharan has caused more damage. With his present average of nearly six wickets a Test, cricket pundits and experts predict that by the time he retires, he will have gone past the 600-wicket mark. To put the matter into perspective, if he carries on at his current wicket-taking rate, in 132 Tests (the number Walsh took for his record), he will have claimed 772 wickets.

And with Shane Warne right behind Muralitharan on 517 Test wickets, the battle is on between the two great turners of the ball to become the leading spinner of all time. Australia comes to Zimbabwe after Sri Lanka's second Test to play two Tests, following which they play Sri Lanka in two further Tests at home in July.