Brendon McCullum apologises to Kumar Sangakkara

Former New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum apologized to the former Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara and spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan for a controversial run out incident happened back in December 2006.

It was during the second innings of the first Test match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at Christchurch, where McCullum was involved in a very controversial run out of Muralitharan. Because of this dismissal, Sri Lanka lost the match by 5 wickets.

The match was at the Jade Stadium, Christchurch, where Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat first, but was bowled out for 154 runs with Shane Bond and James Franklin picking up 3 wickets each. Sri Lankan bowlers responded back well with the off-spin legendary bowler Muralitharan picking up 4 wickets and Chaminda Vaas picking 3 wickets, but New Zealand managed to have a lead of 52 runs.

Despite Kumar Sangakkara scoring a ton, Sri Lankan batting line-up again folded up for 170 runs. Sri Lanka were nine down on 169 and Sangakkara was still at the crease on 99*. He had worked the ball towards deep fine leg for an easy single to complete his century. After completing the single, Murali was going to congratulate Sangakkara for his century and McCullum who was collecting the ball from the fielder shattered the stumps at the striker’s end and umpire judged Murali out.

New Zealand eventually won the match by chasing down 119 runs by the loss of 5 wickets.

Also Read: 17 interesting facts about Brendon McCullum

After a span of 10 years, McCullum spoke about this incident during his lecture. “Nearly ten years after running out Murali, I view things very differently and I would hope that I am a very different person. Kumar Sangakkara is here tonight. Sanga, I admire you enormously. I regard you as a friend. And I take this opportunity to apologize to you and Murali for my actions on that day. I want to share with you the things that I think were the primary catalysts for my change of approach. And I think it’s fair to say that they came late in my career.”