Muttiah Muralitharan has expressed his concern over the fate of test cricket. The legendary Sri Lankan off spinner, who has taken the highest number of wickets in test cricket history with 800, was frank enough to say that he does not think any bowler will break his record soon. Muralitharan revealed that young cricketers prefer shorter formats nowadays and hence they lack consistency to be close to his record. He also noted the decrease in viewing audiences for Test cricket in many countries as a worrying trend.
“Personally I consider Test cricket a worry,” said Muralitharan in an interview with Daily Mail UK
“Each nation does not play more than six or seven tests. Only England and Australia are likely to play the Ashes series. Alas other people within other nations do not watch much of it at all. Therefore this means there would be very limited test matches,” he added.
Muralitharan indicated that this was the main reason why his achievements might take long before being surpassed by anyone.
“It’s exceedingly difficult (for someone to do better than 800 Test wickets since) emphasis has shifted onto shorter form of games. Moreover we were active for two decades. But careers are short-lived these days,” he pointed out.
The nearest bowlers to Muralitharan’s achievement consist of the Australian spin bowler Nathan Lyon (530 wickets) and Indian spin bowler Ravichandran Ashwin (516 wickets). Nevertheless, Lyon is 36 years old while Ashwin is 37 years old, meaning they probably will not attain a total equal to that of Muralitharan before they hang their boots. Recently retired English fast bowler James Anderson had a total of 704 wickets, which ranks third in history.
Among bowlers who are below 30 years old, Kagiso Rabada from South Africa has the most Test wickets with 299.
“Consistency is what is missing. It does not matter how good or skilled they are because all of them have talent. The question now is how can they gain experience? It is not easy nowadays,” Muralitharan continued adding.
In particular after the retirements of great players like himself, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, Muralitharan’s own country Sri Lanka; one among Test-playing nations have seen a decrease in both viewerships and performances.
Recently concluded Test series between England and Sri Lanka was won by home side England 2-1 but ended on a high note for the latter as they won by eight wickets.
