'If I set off 20 minutes earlier, would have been caught in the waves' - Muttiah Muralitharan recalls 2004 Tsunami that wreaked havoc in Sri Lanka

The former Sri Lanka cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan has recounted the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 that wreaked havoc in the country. The incident was so unfortunate that it cost the lives of around 38,000 Sri Lankans. However, cricket in many ways helped the nation unite again and recover from the incident.

The former spinner was leaving for a function with his family on the very same day wherein the tsunami occurred. He was about to attend Kushil Gunasakera’s Foundation of Goodness (FoG) charity function for children ahead of the school year. Muralitharan and Ashan Malalasekera in 1999 had established the foundation in order to provide free educational, sporting, and vocational training across Sri Lanka.

He was 30 minutes late for the function but is now thankful for it. He opened up about that day and reckoned that on his way he was informed by the people that Seawater has come to the land. He further added that it was just a matter of a few minutes or else he too would have been caught in the waves. Muralitharan also asserted how he contributed to helping the people recover from the same.

The pain is difficult to explain because of the situation we went through Muttiah Muralitharan

“On the way, I and my family were going near Kalutara — a place you can see the water in the river which goes to a lagoon. It was a brown color on a full moon day. We thought we should go ahead before the high tide comes. Halfway through the journey, there are people shouting away. I went out of the car and they said, “Seawater has come to the land, don’t go that side, the Galle area.

We luckily turned back and raced back to Colombo. When we switched on the TV, we see the effect of what has happened. If I set off 20 minutes earlier, I would also have been caught in the waves.’ saw the WHO count saying 30,000 people were dead but it looked like 100,000 people who would have died as some villages were wiped away. The pain is difficult to explain because of the situation we went through.

I created awareness because of being a cricketer. I was an ambassador for the World Food Programme. Through them, I got food machines and gave them to places that were affected. And then my good friend Dr. David Young, a Melbourne orthopedic surgeon who was the Sri Lanka cricket team doctor, brought over a team of surgeons from Australia,” Muralitharan said as quoted by Dailymail.