Sri Lanka spinner voted top cricket player
Associated Press
LONDON – Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, frequently accused of an illegal bowling action, has been voted the world's top cricketer of 2006.
The award is decided by cricket journalists and editors at Wisden, which publishes its annual edition Wednesday.
Muralitharan has taken 674 wickets in Test cricket and is in sight of surpassing record-holding Australian Shane Warne, who has 708 wickets but has retired from international cricket.
The Sri Lankan becomes the fourth player to earn the accolade of "Leading Cricketer in the World" since it was inaugurated, joining Australia's Ricky Ponting and Warne and England's Andrew Flintoff.
"He has been the heart and soul and backbone of the Sri Lankan side for more than a decade," Wisden writer and cricket author Simon Barnes wrote. "He has reinvented spin bowling and created a new genre, of which he is the first and the last."
Muralitharan, who is 35 next month and playing at the World Cup in the Caribbean, has taken his wickets despite being born with a deformity in his arm. Some umpires and players have alleged Muralitharan's bowling action is illegal because his bent elbow helps him to spin the ball more than most bowlers.
In 1995 Muralitharan was no-balled for "chucking" in Australia by umpire Darrell Hair, whose accusation of ball tampering last August against Pakistan led to the first forfeit in test cricket's 129-year history.
Muralitharan was cleared by an Australian biomechanics expert but was no-balled again in Australia in 1998 and reported by English match referee Chris Broad in 2004. The ICC, after a major investigation, has ruled that his action is legal.
In 2006, using the "doosra" delivery to cause batsmen even bigger headaches, Muralitharan took 60 wickets in six Tests, taking 10 wickets in four successive Tests against major opponents.
As recently as four months ago, former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe attributed Muralitharan's success to a questionable action.
Barnes attacked Muralitharan's critics, calling them "sneerers and begrudgers, the pusillanimous possessors of small minds and large opinions."
Reflecting the battle over the years between Muralitharan and Warne for overall supremacy, Wisden also features a front cover photograph of the Australian.
"Every leg-spinner will be compared to Warne . . . we will never see anything closer to perfection," said former England captain Mike Atherton, a frequent victim of Warne's beguiling leg breaks.
The 2007 edition published a list of players who would have won the award in the past. Australian batting great Don Bradman (10) tops the list, followed by West Indies all-rounder Garfield Sobers (8). England opening batsman Jack Hobbs, West Indies batsman Viv Richards and Warne are tied with three awards each.
Wisden also named five cricketers of the year on the traditional criteria of "influence on the English season." Three were English – Paul Collingwood, Monty Panesar and Mark Ramprakash – along with Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene and Pakistan batsman Mohammad Yousuf.
Ramprakash scored 2,278 runs last season at an average of 103.54 for his county side Surrey at the age of 36, and even went on to win a TV celebrity ballroom dancing competition.
Wisden, famed for its cricketing statistics, has an index of unusual occurrences in the past year. These included a batsman given out while congratulating a centurymaker; a batsman giving himself out leg before wicket; a team that asked to bowl from one end only; and a cricketer threatening a teammate with his bat.
Wisden editor Matthew Engel called in the 2007 edition for England coach Duncan Fletcher to be replaced after England's 5-0 whitewash by Australia in the Ashes.
"Whatever happens at the World Cup, England must have a new coach," Engel said.
Wisden has been published yearly since 1864.
Arjun
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