World Cup 2023 | Interview: India has what it takes to win the World Cup, says Muralitharan

Pragyan Ojha. It’s a name Muttiah Muralitharan won’t forget for several lifetimes.

Ahead of India’s Test tour of Sri Lanka in 2010, the legendary off-spinner had announced that he would retire after the first of three Tests, at his happy hunting ground, the Galle International Stadium. Murali was perched on 792 wickets going into his 133rd, and final, Test. Would he get to the magical 800 mark, unprecedented and well-nigh unsurpassable?

Five wickets in India’s first innings nudged him closer to history, and when India followed on, he dismissed Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh to move to 799. Three wickets left; Murali needed one for 800. A mere formality, right?

The whimsical cricketing gods have a wicked sense of humour, so they made Murali wait. For more than four hours, as he wheeled away, his saucer-like eyes growing wider and wider with each passing delivery. The spirit was unflagging, the million-dollar smile was firmly plastered on his face, but Murali must have wondered if, like Don Bradman and 6,996 runs, he would end up just short of a nice, round figure.

Then, Ojha happened. A regulation (for Murali), big-turning off-break caught the outside edge and Mahela Jayawardene dived to his left to grab the most important catch of his life. Murali’s grin grew broader, if that was possible; his teammates seemed even more delighted as they mobbed him and chaired him off the park.

That was the effect Murali had on his colleagues. On his opponents. On his people. On the cricket world.

Movie on Murali

It’s 12 and a half years since Murali played his last international game – the 2011 World Cup final against India in Mumbai – but nothing has changed, really. Wherever he goes, he is still the cynosure. He still sports that beaming smile, he genuinely loves life and people, and he carries himself with the same humility that was his calling card when at his peak.

For Sri Lanka, Murali was a beacon of hope. In good times (not too many) and bad (far too frequent), they turned to him for succour and he didn’t disappoint. It didn’t matter to them that he was from the Tamil minority, just like it didn’t matter to him either.

His biopic, appropriately titled 800, is out on Friday (October 6). At one point in the movie, his father asks him, “If you are not Tamil, what are you? Sinhala?”

Murali looks intently at his dad, and says, “Cricketer.”

Simplistic, one might say, because he was more than just a cricketer. He was a unifier at a time when divisiveness characterised his country. For that alone, Sri Lanka will remain eternally grateful to him.

1996 World Cup glory

During his 19-year international career, Murali faced numerous trials and tribulations, not least when he was called for ‘chucking’ on the field in Australia towards the end of 1995. Instead of breaking his spirit, that slight steeled him up; it also stoked the aggressive instincts of his inspirational captain Arjuna Ranatunga and his teammates, who used the insult to mount a campaign for the ages that took them to the 1996 World Cup title.

That title, Murali admits, was a game-changer in so many ways. “It changed everything for me,” he tells The Federal, wistfully but also with obvious pride. “It changed the country, it changed things for Sri Lanka as a cricket-playing nation; financially, it changed everything upside down. It was the beginning of Sri Lankan cricket.

“To win a World Cup, a team has to be united. That unity came because of my incident in 1995. They (his colleagues) put their differences aside and were united. Before the World Cup (in 1996, when Sri Lanka were the co-hosts along with India and Pakistan), a bomb blast happened (in Colombo), and two teams (Australia and West Indies) did not want to come to play in Sri Lanka, so there was more unity in the team. That unity brings success.”

In hindsight, that seems reasonably straightforward, but for a 23-year-old, it couldn’t have been easy. Murali was taunted by Aussie crowds, including by Sri Lankans settled in that country, and he was subjected to numerous bio-mechanical tests that might have adversely impacted a lesser man. Where did he get the courage from to cock a snook at all that, to continue to do what he does best, to not buckle under the immense pressure and scrutiny?

“From the whole country,” he shoots back, toothy grin firmly in place. “I'm a minority person, they didn't think about that. They looked at me as a Sri Lankan, as a cricketer. They said, ‘We have to put the differences aside and support him.’ The belief of a whole nation became my strength.”

In turn, Murali became Sri Lanka’s strength. He linked up with Kushil Gunasekera, who runs the Foundation of Goodness at Seenigama village in Galle, using his immense goodwill across the world to alleviate the misery of thousands in that region. He received support from numerous Indian cricketers, and from such non-Asian legends as Shane Warne, Ian Botham and Andrew Flintoff, among others.

'Need luck to win World Cup'

“I was lucky,” he notes, no sign of pretentiousness on view. “I was a performer on the field. The ability was given by God, and I used it in the right way. I was important to the Sri Lankan team and the country to build the bridge; sport always brings peace.”

Murali today is a businessman too, but his heart continues to beat for Sri Lankan cricket. He is understandably distraught at the depths the national team has plunged in recent times. “Very sad,” he says of Sri Lanka having to qualify for the 2023 World Cup. “As a player who played for the country for two decades, it is sad and frustrating. But we haven't developed great players. When Arjuna played, he developed players like (Kumar) Sangakkara, Mahela, me. After 2015, the side declined because we did not have that calibre of players. They have been okay for the past few years with bits and pieces coming through. But the consistency is not there. It's sad, but we haven't gone worse than the West Indies (who won’t be playing the World Cup). They were such a champion side.”

As for this World Cup, the man with 1,347 international wickets is among the many who feel Rohit Sharma’s side has what it takes to go all the way. “India has a better chance than any other team because of the conditions,” he insists. “They are a good side, and the fan support will be a morale booster. Any team will also need a lot of luck to win the World Cup. England is playing well. Australia always does well in World Cups. And then there are the dark horses like Sri Lanka, South Africa, New Zealand, and Pakistan.”