Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting has urged Muttiah Muralitharan to tour Australia with Sri Lanka in July, saying the local cricket fans would welcome him with open arms.
Ponting sent out his appeal to Murali on his return home from the ill-fated Zimbabwe tour yesterday.
Reports from Colombo over the weekend said the Sri Lankan spin wizard had not changed his mind over quitting the upcoming tour of Australia, but he was under pressure to do so.
Sri Lankan cricket officials said Test cricket's greatest wicket-taker had not officially told the authorities about changing his mind after Australian Prime Minister John Howard upset him by calling him a "chucker."
But Ponting made a plea to Murali to put aside his ill-feeling and come and play against the Test champions Australia.
"I'd love to see him here. He's a fantastic player and opponent, and he's a great competitor," Ponting said.
Murali recently broke retired West Indian Courtney Walsh's world record of 519 wickets, with Australia's Shane Warne in close pursuit.
But Murali has been under scrutiny since English match referee Chris Broad reported his suspect action on the "doosra", a leg-break delivered with an off-break action, to the International Cricket Council in March.
His presence would certainly add spice to the two-Test winter series with Murali (527 wickets) and Warne (517 wickets) going head to head.
"I'm sure the Australian public would love to see him here," Ponting said.
"Let's hope he tours. It would be a great challenge for us if he does because he's a very, very good bowler."
Ponting has also defended Australia's decision to proceed with their three one-day matches in Zimbabwe after the two-test series had been called off.
"I've got no doubt it was the right decision to tour Zimbabwe," Ponting said at Sydney airport yesterday.
"We went there to do our job, which is to play cricket.
"We didn't get involved in anything political but that's not saying we turned a blind eye."
Zimbabwe have been forced to pick a second-string team since last month when 15 white players including former captain Heath Streak made themselves unavailable over what they see as racially driven selection policies.
The African side has lost five one-day internationals and two test matches against Sri Lanka and suffered three defeats in one-day series against Australia which finished on Saturday.
Two scheduled tests against Australia were called off because of Zimbabwe's problems in fielding a test-strength side.
Australia won the three one-day matches by seven wickets, 139 runs and eight wickets.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both. Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak. Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their
RSS