By IANS
Colombo : The Australian fan’s relentless animosity towards Sri Lankan off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan continues as the spin wizard was hit with an egg by a group of Australian fans Friday in Hobart, Australia.
The Sri Lankans, in Australia to compete in a one-day triangular series, were jeered and attacked in Hobart, a Sri Lankan Cricket (SLC) official told “The Island” Friday.
“An egg was thrown at Muralitharan and it struck him,” confirmed a top Sri Lankan cricket official, adding that the authorities were looking into the incident.
The incident had occurred when Muralitharan and his teammates were returning to their hotel after dinner. The Sri Lanka team management safely guided the players back to the hotel after the police arrived.
Hostile reaction of this nature from the Australian public is not new to Sri Lanka cricketers and Muralitharan, who in 2003 was taunted by the crowd with persistent chants of “monkey” and “chucker”. Booing and abusing the bowler had been a usual practice by the Australian spectators in almost all international cricket venues in Australia.
Constantly jeered by the hostile crowd and branded a chucker by the then Australian Prime Minister John Howard, a hurt Muralitharan boycotted the tour in 2004.
The off spinner, the record holder for most number of Test wickets, was also controversially no-balled by Aussie umpires leading the bowler to later undergo laboratory tests to prove the legality of his bowling action.
Sri Lanka will play its first match against India Tuesday in Brisbane.