Murali to take on Australian coaching role

Legendary Sri Lankan bowler Muttiah Muralitharan to take guest coaching role at Australia’s top cricket academy.

SYDNEY: Legendary Sri Lankan bowler Muttiah Muralitharan is to take a guest coaching role at Australia’s top cricket academy in a bid to revamp the nation’s spin hopes.

Muralitharan, the world’s leading wicket-taker in both Tests and One-Day Internationals, will spend several weeks at Cricket Australia’s (CA) Centre of Excellence for intensive training with the nation’s rising spinners, said the Daily Telegraph.

“This is a wonderful opportunity,” Australian selector Greg Chappell told the Sydney newspaper.

“Murali has probably forgotten more about spin bowling than most people will know in a lifetime.

“It is not just Murali’s obvious physical skill that will be a huge benefit for our young spinners in the team, it is also his physical toughness, his cleverness, his cunning and his ability to be able to set a batsman up and bowl 10-15 overs to a plan.”

The off-spinner’s technique would also be recorded and downloaded into the academy’s “virtual bowler” machine, allowing batsmen to square off against a cyber-Murali in the nets.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2011.