By Neena Bhandari, IANS
Sydney : Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan has said that Sri Lanka had no intention of following India’s aggressive tactics.
Speaking at Queensland Cricket’s annual Test match luncheon in Brisbane, Muralitharan, who is only eight Test wickets away from Shane Warne’s world record of 708 wickets, said: “(We want) to play decent cricket and not (approach it) like the Indians. We’d like to play our game. The challenge is not to think about the end results.”
His teammate and fast bowler Chaminda Vaas said: “We are not Indians. We are not going to play like the Indians did. But when it comes to cricket you have to play aggressive cricket. We are here to play good cricket and play smart cricket, and we received the spirit of the game award, so we want to play good cricket and prove we can do something.”
Meanwhile, reports in the local media say Muralitharan was taunted “chucker” during the recent practice match at the Adelaide Oval in south Australia.
He told the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), “Some people have just asked for autographs and have been nice, but there have been one or two people who have shouted ‘chucker’ in the street and during the game in Adelaide. They are just younger guys, and I don’t really pay much attention to it.”
According to SMH, Muralitharan has discussed security measures with Cricket Australia officials. Uniformed officers will be positioned near the boundary rope and there will be plain-clothes policemen in crowd trouble spots.
“I don’t care if people say things to me during games, but it is a problem if they are throwing things. I met some of their (CA’s) security people and I am happy with what they told me. Hopefully, it will be a good series,” he was quoted as saying in the SMH.