Three legends of world cricket, Muttiah Muralitharan, Sachin Tendulkar, and Brian Lara, assembled together under one roof on Tuesday evening for the launch of the trailer of Muralitharan’s biopic titled ‘800’.
They shared some great stories about each other and also some of their teammates. During the conversation, Muttiah Muralitharan, who is the leading international wicket-taker, trolled Indian batting great and current head coach, Rahul Dravid, with a funny one-liner.
Speaking at the launch of his biopic, Muttiah Muralitharan said that while Tendulkar, Sehwag, and Lara could read his variations from his hand, former India batsman Rahul Dravid could not. This eked out sheepish smiles on the faces of the media present at the event. Muttiah Muralitharan admired Dravid as “one of the greatest” batsmen ever, but took a cheeky dig saying he could not understand his bowling.
“He (Tendulkar) read me very well. Not many people can do (that). (Brian) Lara had success, but he never hit me either,” Muralitharan said
“I know a few people, like Rahul Dravid; he is one of the greatest players, but he never read me. Sachin (Sehwag) and Gambhir would read. Even in my team, some people read and some did not.”
The numbers of their head-to-head record, however, are in Rahul Dravid’s favor. Muttiah Muralitharan dismissed Rahul Dravid only four times in international cricket – Rahul Dravid averaged 111 in Tests and 41 in ODIs vs Muralitharan.
Sachin Tendulkar recalls his first meeting with Muttiah Muralitharan
Sachin Tendulkar, the leading international run-scorer, remembered his first encounter with the spin wizard from way back in 1992/93.
“I remember meeting him for the first time in 1992-93, and we have continued to be good friends. He just loved bowling and the whole world knew he had a big turner. You make him bowl on an expressway and he would turn the ball. No matter how the surface is.
“He had developed the ‘doosra’ but spent a lot of time practising it in the nets. For 18 months, he continued practising the ‘doosra’ in the nets before he bowled the first ball in international cricket. The reason for that was that he should not lose his original strengths and the qualities that he possessed,” Tendulkar said.
Muralitharan
