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Australian Crowd Abuse made me stronger - Murali

JASON

Cricketer Of The Year
Reveals the secret behind his recent good form
Australian crowd abuse made me stronger - Murali

Cricinfo staff

September 10, 2006



Muttiah Muralitharan attributes his recent good form to the abuse that he faced during VB series in Australia this January. "If there is one thing that maybe has helped me this year it was the experience I had in Australia," Murali told Bigstarcricket website.

"It may sound a strange thing to say as it was a very tough tour for me on and off the field, especially with the abuse we received."

Murali was greeted with chants of 'no-ball' by Australian crowds during the series. He was first no-balled at Melbourne by umpire Darrell Hair in Sri Lanka's tour of Australia in 1995.

"If you go through difficult times and come out the other side, you become a stronger character for it," Murali said. That's what happened to me. I like to think that I am quite strong mentally anyway. But these sort of experiences only make me more determined."

Murali has had a phenomenal run of form the past year collecting 108 Test wickets at an average of 19.37, from 15 matches between September 2005 and August 2006. But in one-day cricket during that period, Murali has got only 36 wickets from 28 matches. "Cricket is like this, wickets can come all at once and at other times you can bowl well and maybe not receive your rewards," Murali said.

"I am in some good form but I wouldn't say it is necessarily the best form of my career. I am just bowling well and have found some good rhythm. For the last year I have bowled well and I haven't done anything different in these series than at other times," he added.
 
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Perm

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Tests against Australia
55 wickets at 30.56, with a SR of 60.76 and BB figures of 6/59
ODIs against Australia
46 wickets at 29.85, with a SR of 40.22 and BB figures of 4/27
 

Slow Love™

International Captain
Am I the only person who thinks Murali probably shouldn't have gone here? And I speak as somebody supportive of him not wanting to put up with some of the more ridiculous abuse that gets thrown at him.
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
Slow Love™ said:
Am I the only person who thinks Murali probably shouldn't have gone here? And I speak as somebody supportive of him not wanting to put up with some of the more ridiculous abuse that gets thrown at him.
I have to be honest, I were an Aussie terrace wit such talk would encourage me to raise my game on his next visit.
 

Langeveldt

Soutie
Everyone cops abuse in Australia, Tuffnell, Symcox, Cullinan, Donald have all copped it heavily, and Panesar will get shredded when he goes there this winter.. It's part and parcel of touring said country, and if Murali doesn't like it, well then he's in the wrong game
 

archie mac

International Coach
He will never been rated by a lot of Aussies until he performs in Tests in Australia,




with D. Hair as umpire:laugh:
 

Craig

World Traveller
Slow Love™ said:
Am I the only person who thinks Murali probably shouldn't have gone here? And I speak as somebody supportive of him not wanting to put up with some of the more ridiculous abuse that gets thrown at him.
Yeah but on the other hand Sit would have been a big blow for the Sri Lankans mentally if he didn't come and he probably didn't want to be shirking his responsibility and by not touring it would mean that the crowds have won.

I agree it is pretty ridiculous, but generally when these morons get drunk their IG usually drops by about 50 points anyway.
 

dinu23

International Debutant
Langeveldt said:
Everyone cops abuse in Australia, Tuffnell, Symcox, Cullinan, Donald have all copped it heavily, and Panesar will get shredded when he goes there this winter.. It's part and parcel of touring said country, and if Murali doesn't like it, well then he's in the wrong game
non of them were abused like Murali.
 

Craig

World Traveller
Langeveldt said:
Everyone cops abuse in Australia, Tuffnell, Symcox, Cullinan, Donald have all copped it heavily, and Panesar will get shredded when he goes there this winter.. It's part and parcel of touring said country, and if Murali doesn't like it, well then he's in the wrong game
I think Panesar will be shredded if he makes mistakes in the field.
 

Slow Love™

International Captain
BoyBrumby said:
I have to be honest, I were an Aussie terrace wit such talk would encourage me to raise my game on his next visit.
Yeah, exactly what I was thinking.


Craig said:
Yeah but on the other hand Sit would have been a big blow for the Sri Lankans mentally if he didn't come and he probably didn't want to be shirking his responsibility and by not touring it would mean that the crowds have won.
By "not going here", I meant Murali's comments, not whether or not he should have come to Australia, Craig. Pretty much for the reason above.

Many people (including many in Australia) have said that Murali should ignore the crowds, concentrate on winning games, and attempt to win over the crowds through his performances. While I'm not entirely sure that this would work, I think the key point was to turn a negative into a positive by ignoring the crowds, rather than responding (or effectively goading them, as in this instance), particularly seeing as he's shown that he's in fact fairly sensitive to the abuse. I guess his comments were maybe geared towards a more partisan audience, but he probably should have known better.
 

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