I never had a problem with the Australian cricket board: Muttiah Muralitharan

Sri Lankan bowling legend Muttiah Muralitharan has had some bitter experience in Australia but that past doesn’t act as a stoppage for him to offer his services to the Australians. Muralitharan is currently with the Australia team as a spin consultant.

“I never had a problem with the Australian cricket board, players, or their people in general. It was just one or two individuals who made this accusation that I ‘throw’ the ball, and I proved them wrong. You’ve got to move on in life. If you carry grudges, you spoil your present and future. At the end of the day, I’m a professional,” Muralitharan told TOI from Colombo on Saturday.

The 44-year-old has also helped the Aussies in 2014 before a series against Pakistan. The bitterness for him in Australi began when the off-spinner was ‘called’ twice by Australian umpire Darrel Hair during the Melbourne Test in 1995-96.

Later, during the tri-series, Murali `suffered’ again at the hands of another Aussie umpire, Ross Emerson. It led to the entire Arjuna Ranatunga led Sri Lankan team protesting in a symbol of Asian cricket’s ‘resistance’ against cricket’s ‘western bloc’. The ‘chucking’ saga reached another level after Australian Prime Minister John Howard openly accused Muralitharan of ‘throwing’ the ball.

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It is the former offspinner’s good relationship with Darren Lehmann which brings him to the Australian camp from time to time. Muralitharan, however, thinks positively and feels that if you live in the past you can’t think about the future.

“Like most of the Australian cricketers of my era, I’ve a long relationship with him too. It’s also the media which makes the things difficult. As I said past is past. If you think about it, you can’t go into the future,” chuckled the retired tweaker.