Wisden overview
Averaging five and a half wickets per Test, Murali is the most successful spinner in the game and the greatest player in Sri Lanka's history. He bowls long spells, yet is forever on the attack. The son of a confectioner from Kandy, he has a unique collection of allsorts. From a loose-limbed, open-chested action, his chief weapons are the big-spinning offbreak, the ball that drifts the other way, and the one that goes straight on. With his helicopter wrist, he turns the ball off any surface - someone famously said he would turn it off the M4 motorway - but prefers pitches with bounce. His shyness belies a mental resilience acquired in overcoming prejudice against Tamils in his own country and whispers from abroad that he threw - the consequence of a deformity that stops him straightening his right elbow. In 2002 he became the youngest player to take 400 Test wickets, and the quickest, achieving the feat in only his 72nd Test. Simon Wilde

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