The highest wicket-taker in both forms of the game and the most vicious spinner of the cricket born to have graced the game of cricket, Muttiah Muralitharan, is probably Sri Lanka’s most valuable contribution to the cricketing world to date.

Born in 1972, Muttiah Muralitharan is regarded as the best off-spinner to have played the game of cricket for the Sri Lankan cricket team. He debuted against the Indian cricket team in 1993 and to date has represented his country in 341 ODIs. His bowling record speaks for itself since he is the highest wicket-taker in the ODIs with 519 wickets at a staggering average of 23.18 and with the best bowling performance of 7/30.

Murali has troubled batsmen all across the world even on pitches that were widely considered to be batting-friendly and have been a reason for excruciating pain for them. He is an extremely lively character and enjoys his bowling to the fullest.

Muralitharan’s world cup record is outstanding since he is third on the list of the highest world cup wicket-takers only behind Glenn McGrath (Aus). In the 4 world cup tournaments that he has been a part of thus far, he has 53 scalps in 31 matches. His role during the 1996 Cricket World Cup, which the Sri Lankan cricket team won, was extremely crucial as he put breaks on the batsmen on the batting-friendly wickets of the subcontinent.

With the World Cup 2011 to be Murali’s final cricket tournament, he is as always a force to reckon with, and owing to his beautiful off-spin action and hunger to win, he is likely to take his team closer to yet another trophy before calling it a day.

Muralitharan is one of the all-time best bowlers the cricket world has ever seen. Do we need any other proof of his cricketing genius other than the number of international wickets this brilliant Sri Lankan has taken?

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