posted July 27, 2002 09:23 AM            

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Australia tried it, England tried it, now it seems to be the turn of Sri Lanka itself; halting their greatest hero, Muttiah Muralitharan in his quest to becoming the world's no 1 bowler.Phew ! An enemy in one's own back yard !!

The selectors have opted to go with total inexperience for the second test vs Bangladesh as against full strength side in the first test. Extremes in both cases and the captain is justifiably unhappy. Jayasuriya under so much fire; is correct to vociferously voice his opinion this time.

However the most blatant blunder is the exclusion of Muralitharan on his way to break the record of Sir Richard Hadlee in taking five wicket hauls. The master webber, way ahead of his counterparts in the number of tests taken to get his wickets and one step away from over-running the Hadlee record has been abruptly stopped in his tracks. With an almost assured 5 wicket stint yet again, the bogyman would have been rubbing his hands in glee. Given, achieving such a feat vs weak opposition is nothing to contend about; bet the Handlee's of the world did not get them a against powerful opposition all the time. Certain they would have looked forward to bowling to the likes of Sri Lanka in those days and pocket huge match –bags.

While the fans scream blue-murder, and the arm chair pundits have a field day; Muralitharan must actually be pulling his hair out for being denied this opportunity.

The selectors job is no doubt thankless with an entire country at their throats when things go wrong. It must be appreciated that they are men of repute, with all facts and figures at hand, watch the cricketers closely, know them personally so they are in a far better position to judge than some of us, however, it is unreasonable to stop a record breaking man in his spoor.