Muttiah Muralitharan.

Muralidaran; born 17 April 1972 .Muralitharan was born in kandy, the eldest of the four sons to Sinnasamy Muttiah and Lakshmi. Muralitharan's father Sinnasamy Muttiah, runs a successful biscuit-making business.He began his cricketing career as a medium pace bowler but on the advice of his school coach, Sunil Fernando, he took up off-spin when he was fourteen years old. He soon impressed and went on to play for four years in the school First XI. In those days he played as an all-rounder and batted in the middle order. In his final two seasons at St Anthony's College he took over one hundred wickets and in 1990/1 was named as the 'Bata Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year.

he played Tamil Union Cricket and Asthetic club and was also selected for the Sri Lanka A, e played in five games but failed to capture a single wicket. On his return to Sri Lanka he impressed against Allan Border’s Australian team in a practice game and then went to make his Test debut at R. Premadasa stadium in the second Test Match of the series. In Domestic cricket, Muralitharan has played for two first class Sri Lankan sides, “Tamil Union cricket and Athletic club” in the Premier Trophy and central province in the provincial championship. His record has been exceptional taking 234 wickets at 14.51runs in 46matches.Murali has also played county cricket in England mainly for a Lancashire (from 1999 to 2007) and for Kent during 2003. Murali played his first match against India at the Khettrama stadium and took 1 for 38 off his ten overs. Praveen Amre was his first ODI wicket.

He played many ODI’s for Sri Lanka and could capture 534 wickets in 350 ODI matches. Muralitharan is the first wrist spinning off spinner in the history of the game. He bowls marathon spells, yet it forever on the attack. ~ Murali has played in 4 cricket world cup tournaments in 1996, 1999, 2003 2007 and 2011
On October 27, 2000 in Sharjah Murali captured 7 for 30 against India, which were then the best bowling figures in ODI’s.Murali played his first Test match against Australia in 1992 at the age of 20. In his first match he claimed 3 wickets and giving away 141runs. His first Test wicket was Craig Mc Dermott. During his first test, there was one dismissal which convinced many of Muralitharan’s special Powers. Tom Moody’s leg stump was dislodged when he shouldered arms to a delivery that pitched at least two feet outside the off stump. The youthful Muralitharan went from strength to strength, playing a major part in Sri Lanka’s back to back Test victories against England and New Zealand in 1992-93season.

It was in New Zealand in March 1995 that Muralitharan displayed his qualities as a match winner on any surface. He took 19 wickets in the series and delivering a historic 2-1 victory, the off spinner silenced the doubters.

During the second Test between Sri Lanka and Australia at MCG on Boxing Day 1995, Australian umpire Darrell Hair called Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing in front of crowd 55,239. The off spinner was no-balled seven times in 3 overs by Hair, who believed at then 23 year old was bending his arm and straightening it in the process of delivery an illegal action in cricket. In January 1998, Muralitharan took his first ten wicket haul against Zimbabwe in the first Test at Kandy; in that match Murali had figures of 12 for 117 which were won by his team. In the same year, he produced his career best test match figures of 16 for 220 against England. Murali became the fastest to reach the 400 wicket landmark when he bowled Olongo in the third test in Galle againstZimbabwe.In August that same year Muralitharan produces his career-best test match figures of 16 for 220, in the one-off test against England. In England's second innings Muralitharan bowled a marathon 54.2 overs to pick up 9 for 65 runs the other wicket being a run out. Sri Lanka won by ten wickets, their first Test victory in England. After breaking the world record for the most test wickets in 2007, Muralitharan commented that his 1998 performance at the Oval against England, was his career highlight. He stated "Everyone thought I was a good bowler then and I didn't look back from there.

         In July 2007, Muttiah Muralitharan became the second bowler after Australia's Shane Warne to capture 700 Test wickets.Muralitharan reclaimed the record for most Test wickets during the first Test against England at kandy on 3 December 2007. The spinner bowled England's paul collingnwood to claim his 709th Test victim and overtaking shane warne in the process. Muralitharan reached the mark in his 116th Test – 29 fewer than Warne – and had conceded only 21.77 runs per wicket compared to the Australian's 25.41. This was Muralitharan's 61st 5-wicket haul. Warne believed that Muralitharan would take "1,000 wickets" before he retired. Former record holder cournty walsh also opined that this would be possible if Muralitharan retained his hunger for wickets. Muralitharan himself believed there was a possibility that he would reach this milestone

Muralitharan was on the winning side on 54 of the 133 test matches he played. In those games he captured a total of 438 wickets (8.1 wickets per match), at an outstanding average of 16.18 per wicket and a strike rate of Muralitharan took 800 wickets for his country Sri Lanka in 133 tests. he is retired after 2011 world cup ..

       Bowling averages

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	133	230	44039	18180	800	9/51	16/220	22.72	2.47	55.0	45	67	22
ODIs	350	341	18811	12326	534	7/30	7/30	23.08	3.93	35.2	15	10	0
T20Is	12	12	282	297	13	3/29	3/29	22.84	6.31	21.6	0	0	0
First-class	232		66933	26997	1374	9/51		19.64	2.42	48.7		119	34
List A	453		23734+	15270	682	7/30	7/30	22.39	3.85*	35.1*	17	12	0
Twenty20	159	159	3609	3821	176	4/16	4/16	21.71	6.35	20.5	3	0	0

        Batting and fielding averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	133	164	56	1261	67	11.67	1794	70.28	0	1	146	29	72	0
ODIs	350	162	63	674	33*	6.80	869	77.56	0	0	50	12	130	0
T20Is	12	2	0	1	1	0.50	5	20.00	0	0	0	0	1	0
First-class	232	276	83	2192	67	11.35			0	1			123	0
List A	453	205	76	945	33*	7.32			0	0			159	0
Twenty20	159	38	14	81	11	3.37	110	73.63	0	0	3	2	31	0