Murali will defy the ages

[manoj_admlab]

Robert Craddock December 05, 2007 12:00am THE bowler who will eclipse Muthiah Muralidaran's world record Test wicket tally is not playing the game. There is a a strong chance he might not yet have been born. I'll go a step further and predict he will never exist. It's not true to say all records are made to be broken. Don Bradman's batting average of 99.94 has been untouchable for almost 60 years. Florence Griffith-Joyner's world 100m and 200m records - as drug fuelled as they may have been - have stood for decades. By the time Murali retires, there is a strong chance his record will be as untouchable as Bradman's because the game is changing behind him and may never permit a bowler to play enough Tests to catch him. Think about it. Even the greats struggle to average more than 4.5 wickets a Test, but let's say a rampaging new star averages five. Let's also assume they are cut from stone and remain injury free, play in a team where there is not much competition for wickets. And buck all the modern trends by starting young, before their 21st birthday. To catch Murali's projected total of 900 - and we are being conservative here because he wants 1000 and will probably get them - our new man would need to play about 180 Tests, 22 more than Steve Waugh's record. It will never happen. Common sense dictates that. Of 43 players to play more than 100 Tests only nine are bowlers. No bowler has played more than Shane Warne's 145 Tests. If Murali's record is eclipsed, it could only be by a spinner. Any fast bowler who gets within 300 of him would be a freak of nature. West Indian Courtney Walsh is the barometer here. The paceman, idolised throughout the world for a body that never seemed to break down, played for 17 years and was once the world record-holder for most wickets. There has never been a more resilient paceman - and he took "just" 519 wickets. Of today's bowlers, India's indestructible spinner Anil Kumble (576 wickets) is best placed to get close to Murali but he has been playing for 17 years and, at 37, his time is short. With Twenty20 cricket on the rise and cluttered one-day schedules, there is no guarantee teams will play as much Test cricket as in the past. With flatter decks, smaller boundaries and heavier bats, everything is weighed against the bowler. Murali is about to roar off into a stratosphere occupied by he alone . . . perhaps forever.