Muralitharan or Warne?
The last two decades have been wonderful for spin bowling in general, with the emergence of several world-class performers. The 1980s were a lean period for spin bowlers, with the West Indian quicks leading the charge and the art of spin bowling had almost petered out before being resurrected by the genius of champions like Shane Warne, Muttaih Muralitharan, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Saqlain Mushtaq, Stuart Macgill and to a lesser extent by Daniel Vettori and Monty Panesar. Two men towered over the others in terms of sheer numbers; Muralitharan and Warne. And I have often spent a good deal of thought wondering who is better. In fact, such a comparison might not be entirely fair in regards to champion cricketers like these two. So let me put it this way: If we had place for only one snipper in a World XI, whom would we pick?
Let’s set aside one question first. If anyone still believes that Muralitharan chucks, then it would be better if he/she keeps away from this discussion; instead, check out the following two videos:
A careful analysis of these videos should bring to rest any residual doubts that may remain in the minds of his detractors. It was extremely classy of Muralitharan to agree to do these shows and that speaks volumes about how gracefully he has handled this ignominy initiated by stubborn umpires like Darrell Hair and Ross Emerson and so called experts like Bishan Bedi, whose grasp of the real and sane has been questionable, based on his assessments of various situations over the past decade or so.
Having said that though, it is quite clear that Murali has a freak wrist and shoulder, which aids his bowling and makes the doosra doubly potent. It is often said that Murali can spin the ball on glass and that is directly a consequence of his incredibly flexible wrist, which enables him to deliver the ball like a wrist spinner rather than a finger spinner. So to categorize Murali as a finger spinning off spinner is not an accurate classification. Having seen how his shoulder’s and elbow’s movements create an optical illusion of throwing, it is easy to see how Darrell Hair made his initial calls. What is hard to fathom are the repeated calls for his expulsion from the game by several other people in the game despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.
Warne however is just a classical leg spinner who is a joy to watch. The maturing of Warne as a bowler has also been very evident over the course of his career. While most of his early wickets were a result of his big spinning leg break and the flipper, his inability to bowl the flipper after his injury in the late 90s meant that he had to device other means to plot a batsman out. The fact that he remained just as prolific for a decade without his flipper conveyed a deeper understanding and mastery of the nuances of spin, loop, dip and drift which very few other contemporaries had.
Statistically, both have taken more than 700 wickets and although Murali will definitely end up with atleast a couple of hundred wickets more it is interesting to dig deeper in the statistics for a clearer picture. Although Warne reached his landmark in a much higher number of tests, Murali has bowled more balls for the same number of wickets, an indication of workload he has had to bear in the Sri Lankan attack. And if you disregard performances against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, then Warne has more wickets (691) as opposed to Murali’s 594. (Having taken 176 wickets against the minnows). Murali however, has the better average of around 24 as opposed to Warne who is around the 25 mark. Needless to say, both are phenomenal numbers for spinners. Also a bulk of Murali’s wickets have been taken on tailor-made tracks in Sri Lanka where for a long time Murali came in to bowl in the first 15-20 overs after Chaminda Vaas had taken the shine off the new ball. Warne on the other hand had to compete for wickets with McGrath, Gillespie, Lee and Kasprowicz.
We can also make a counter argument and suggest that wickets for Warne were easy pickings after the fast bowlers had softened the batsmen up and Murali on the other hand had to perform the hard work of setting the batsmen up and dismissing him all by himself. We will never know which argument prevails, but I would be most interested in what the readers think about this.
It is hard to provide a perfectly trenchant analysis of two of the champions of the modern game in such short place and this is where I would invite the readers to leave behind their comments on this post. I may have been predisposed to pick Warne in my all time XI, but it has been a joy to watch the two magicians in action. In the world of modern sport dominated by power and brute force, spin bowling remains a unique art relying on small subtleties, nuances and pure cerebral action. Murali and Warne will forever remains two of the finest exponents of that art and we were incredibly fortunate to have witnessed them in action.
2 Responses to “Muralitharan or Warne?”
very well written andya,couldnt disagree with anything,its a very balanced analysis, and the two definitely stand above the rest both in terms of stats and the transformative impact on the art of spin bowling. While Murali may enjoy the statistical advantage, its important to note as you rightly point out that Warne had to compete for wickets.How often did we see Warne walk in to bowl with half the opposition back in the pavilion.Murali on the other was the lone wicket taker in his side, His fivefors usually ended up being 7fors and 8fors, In fact I reckon Murali has more 8fors than anyone else in test cricket(i’ll run a cricinfo query to confirm).2ndly,we need to look at their records abroad, which you also mention.Barring the series winning performance in England, and a couple here and there, Murali has little to show, and comes up way short. Warne consistently destroyed England, SA (ask cullinan),Indian in 04,WI,NZ, and even SL(who can forget that stellar performance in his comeback series in 04 that led to a 3-0 whitewash) in their own backyard.So if you look at sheer match winning ability – youll have to pick warne
and the videos arent working….find them on some other site, and repost.
Leave a Reply