By IANS,
Melbourne : Spin legend Muttiah Muralidharan feels the screening of “Four Corners”, a graphic Channel 4 documentary about atrocities committed during the end of the Sri Lankan civil war, will not prompt the Australian cricket team to boycott its impending tour to the island nation for moral reasons.
In a poll conducted by The Age, of the of the 3,527 votes received on “Should the Australian cricket team tour Sri Lanka”, 81 per cent (2856) voted “no”.
Muralidaran, who has retired from international cricket and is currently playing for English county Gloucestershire, said that while players were entitled to make individual decisions but boycotting the tour would have dire consequences for world cricket.
“Sport and politics are different. If Australia is not going to play any more in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Zimbabwe … If they only play in some countries, world cricket will die and IPL will take over,” Muralidharan was quoted as saying by The Age.
Cricket Australia (CA) is advised by the federal government on touring obligations unless it is unsafe to do so. They were stopped from touring Zimbabwe in 2007.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has raised no objection to the Sri Lankan tour and the CA is committed to it, conscious of cricket’s power as a unifying force.