Murali’s ‘doosra discovery’ in the late 90s too was because of him becoming predictable. Brendon Kuruppu, who was the Sri Lankan wicket-keeper on the tour to England that happened to be Murali’s first, has watched the spin great since his early days. “Keeping wickets to Murali was quite simple when he started playing international cricket, since all he had was a big off-spinner. There came a time when people started reading Murali. Batsmen like Hansie Cronje, Navjot Singh Sidhu and Sourav Ganguly started hitting him out of the park. Murali had seen Saqlain Mushtaq develop a doosra and he too wanted that ball in his arsenal. And it is because of this that he developed the doosra,” says Kuruppu.

‘Read his mind’

The ‘keeper, who is the present coach of Tamil Union cricket club, says that the only way to understand Murali is to read his mind. “Picking Murali is something that many have tried and failed. To understand him, one needs to know what he is planning. The batsmen should try to guess his tactics and the angles he is working on,” he says.

But that’s easier said than done since Hathurusinghe has an old tale that proves Murali always stays one step ahead of his rivals. “Not just at cricket, he doesn’t like to lose at anything. During our early days at Tamil Union, there was a billiards table.

“Murali wasn’t into cue sports so we didn’t allow him to play to protect the baize top of the table. The nets used to start at 4 pm but Murali started coming to the club two hours early. He used to come and play endlessly with the markers and there came a time when he was much better than us,” says Hathurusinghe.

... contd.