Muttiah Muralitharan feels not many curators in contemporary cricket actually know how a pitch will behave.
Fielding questions from The Hindu , here on Wednesday, he said, “Preparing a pitch is an art. I do not think there are too many curators today who know what they have to do to get the surface to behave in the manner they want it to. Actually, there are only a few curators today who have complete knowledge of the subject.”
The off-spin wizard, who reached an incredible 800 Test wickets in the first Test at Galle before retiring from the longer format, revealed the curators also had to face some other pressures.
“A Test match becomes a good contest only if the pitch has something in it for the bowlers. But we see a lot of flat tracks these days. There is pressure on the curators from the television companies to prepare wickets favouring batsmen.
The right balance
“They would lose revenue if the match ends on the third or fourth day. They want the Test to last all five days. So the curators end up preparing tracks where the batsmen dominate. We need to strike the right balance.”
On the contentious Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS), which has not been implemented in the ongoing series between India and Sri Lanka, he said, “I strongly believe UDRS should be there for every series. The game is already loaded in favour of the batsmen.
“There should be some respite for the bowlers. After all, we only want to arrive at the right decisions. Under UDRS, each team is permitted only two unsuccessful appeals in an innings. How much time is it going to take?”
Muralitharan added, “What the UDRS does is that it eliminates blatant errors from the umpires. If there is an obvious mistake from the standing umpire, the UDRS can set it right.
“Several matches have changed course because of a poor decision.
“If the technology is available, why not put it to use?”
The spin legend is of the opinion that the UDRS must be made a part of One-Day Internationals too.
“It will definitely help in the ODIs. I do not believe UDRS slows down the game.”
Memorable dismissals
Asked about his most memorable dismissals in Tests, Muralitharan replied, “I got England's Mark Butcher and Sadagopan Ramesh of India, both are left-handers, with deliveries that pitched on leg and hit the off-stump.
“Then, I got the right-handed Martin Crowe with a different delivery. The ball landed on his leg-stump and struck the off. I will always remember those deliveries.”
On batsmen who handled his deadly mix well, Muralitharan said, “The left-handed Brian Lara played me extremely well in one series at home. And it was always a challenge to bowl at Sachin Tendulkar. These great players read your bowling and your variety well. They pick the length quickly, use their feet. That is why they are great players.”
‘Swann is good'
Dwelling on present-day off-spinners, he said, “Harbhajan Singh should be around for some time. We also have Graeme Swann, who is a good bowler. Spin bowling, in general, will survive.
“In the '80s, there were not too many good spinners around and everyone wanted to bowl pace. Then, we had three or four great spinners in the last two decades. It is a cyclical thing. Even if great spinners do not surface in this decade, they will definitely come through in the next decade.”
He said young spinners should be able to adjust to the demands of Twenty20 cricket without letting it affect their bowling in other formats.
