Murali, ethnicity, colonialism and cricket - A story!

A journey of cricket through the life of Muttiah Muralitharan

In the real world, if you have to offend someone you have to call them names (I don’t need to spell these expletives, you know them all, but they usually refer to members of your family).

In the cricketing world however, the gravest abuse starts with a ‘C’(and it's not the western connotation of the letter). In cricket, you call them a ‘Chucker’ (if you want to curse a bowler) or call them ‘Chokers’ (if you want to take down an entire team). The Fafs, ABs, Steyns, Morkels, Gibbs, all of whom have been called the latter C word, can’t compare with the inflicted pain on Murali with semantics.

So intense was the collective hatred that the Aussie Prime Minister of the time John Howard came out with a statement, calling Murali a ‘Chucker’ - a masterclass in keeping politics and diplomacy away from the great game (pun intended). Throughout multiple Aussie tours, the nasty Aussie crowd jeered and sneered loud chants of ‘no-ball’ in unison at Murali. This was highly ungentlemanly.

Because cricket, although an English invention - is not bestowed with inherent Hooliganism - minus the Aussies and the Bangladeshis of course. It was Murali’s birthday a couple of days back. And I started writing about Murali, the player, the mystery and the character.?

When you see Murali on screen talking to TV presenters now, he looks like a person who could be the next DMK candidate in the ongoing LS elections. His Kandy Tamil might sound a little off compared to our Tamil - it sounds very different to the Jaffna Tamil (the Indian Tamils in the hills are considered a different community compared to the Jaffna Tamil). But you get the point - he will slot right in.

Understanding Murali the character is impossible without understanding Sri Lanka the country and especially the Sri Lankan Civil War. There was a chapter in NCERT Pol Science book about ethnicity that talked about disintegrated Yugoslavian states, Belgium, Israel-Palestine, and then Sri Lanka. What got engraved in my then impressionable mind was that our southern neighbor was an interesting country - ‘twas not just about Radio Ceylon which my grandfather talked about. And that Sri Lanka was not just a GK trivia owing to the first woman to be elected as Prime Minister through democratic means, Sirimavo Bandaranaike. And that SL was not just one of the nations from which Adichie's characters drew inspiration amidst the complexities of post-colonial politics in the past British colonies.

Talking about British Colonies - during the 19th century, the undisputed kings of the world were the British/Company Bahadur and its Civil Services Officers. With the indentured labor system (girmitiya) running in full flow after the abolition of slavery (1833) in the then British realm - for the profits to grow for the EIC (Company Bahadur) - the Brit administrators needed loyal hardworking subjects to pluck tea leaves.

How did they solve this?

They sent hordes of people from the Madras Presidency because they rebelled the least (unlike the Bengal and Bombay Presidencies). Hence, from the hinterlands and the coastal towns of the Madras Presidency - Tamils were scouted, selected and shipped to the northern port of Mannar (SL). From here, they were cattled to Kurunegala and onwards to the tea plantations/estates of Kandy.

But I digress, let’s talk about Murali. Murali’s family was one of those families which settled in the Hill Country. The Tamil people living in the hill country are monikered as Mountain Tamils (by both Sinhalas and Jaffna Tamils).

If you have ever been to Colombo - there are three things that you won’t find:?

Wheat Roti, Indian Cigarettes, and Tamils speaking Tamil.

Heritage and Cricket have always been intertwined in the British Colonies. Case in point, Murali is one of the few full-bred Tamils to have represented Sri Lanka at the highest level. Angelo Mathews is considered Burgher/Christian even though he is half Tamil (from his father’s side). Russell Premkumaran Arnold (considered Christian) is another one - he does Tamil commentary in the IPL.

We could make a case for Moors, Malay, and Burghers too, but that would need a different post.?

For Sri Lanka, a country where cricket is reserved for the wealthy families (read Sinhala) at the best public schools. Naturally, the less well to do Tamils find themselves on the margins.?

Murali came from a business family - his father ran a biscuit factory in Kandy. The city of Kandy is serene - a tall white Buddha overlooks the city and you hear Buddhist hymns all day.

In the SL cricketing circles, there are hush-hush conversations on not mixing ethnicity/language with the great game. I laud the lofty idealism but simply check on how many major SL players (hint: Dilscoop) have changed their religion to Buddhism. There is another country in the subcontinent where it is commonplace - Dinesh had to keep his first name as Danish and a certain Youhana changed his faith. I remember Youhana for his lazy elegance - sometimes you wonder how a person who looked like that and spoke broken English could be so effortlessly Victorian in his shots so as to not even break a sweat sending the cherry to the fences - watch some of the shots through the off side against top Aussie and English bowlers.

Cricket aficionados know all there is to know about what Murali did on the field.

• I don’t have to tell you about his Doosras and Off-spinners.
• I don’t have to tell you about his 800 Test scalps.
• I don’t want to entertain your tasteless argument that most of those wickets were taken in the dustbowls.
• I don’t want to get into the Warnie vs Murali debate either - I like them both. Although I love Warnie the character more than the cricketer.

The colonial masters of the game have often dictated what cricket ought to be. In the late 70s and the early 80s, there was a long furore over the Calypso fast bowling, it was uncricketlike. Then in the late 80s and 90s, the discourse changed from murderous fast bowling to snake-like reverse swing. This again did not please the Luddites of the game and they made their indignation apparent. There was also a lot of brainless chatter around brown umpires favoring the home teams. The way they were clutching the conventions of cricket, it always felt like the ‘gatekeepers’ shall always get to decide what is cricketlike and what is not.

In conclusion, Murali belongs to a long list of victims of the game of cricket. In the gentleman’s game, he was a gentleman like no other. I sometimes wonder how one could continue with one’s career and keep playing at the top, with such abuse.

In a pre-capitalist cricketing world, the cricketing nations of the Global South were considered a bunch of lousy athletes.

It was an Anglophone sport.?

It was easy to bully a player.

Even the whole national team.

Fast forward two decades, we have come to realize that money is the answer to everything. You might know that the HQ of the ICC has moved eastwards to Dubai - closer to money (so much so for a game that doesn’t have rules but laws).?

Murali is 52 now. He hasn’t played international cricket for the last 13-14 years. He did play for CSK during the infancy of the IPL for three seasons (and remained the highest wicket-taker for the team during his time). Some called the decision to get Murali to Chennai was motivated. He went on to play for a few more seasons in various T20 leagues across the world until 2014-15. Then he stopped. Today, he coaches SRH in the IPL.

Call it poetic justice, or long overdue respect - life takes a full circle. Aussie great Steve Waugh later called Murali, the ‘Don Bradman of Bowling’. The most vocal dissers of Murali, the Aussie cricket board - came to Murali for a coaching assignment during the 2014 and 2016 tours of Asia - that bit would have made Murali smile and have a happy beer at his home.

Even the most outspoken castigators - Dean Jones and no bullshit BS Bedi(RIP to both) - of Murali converted when they saw the results of the multiple tests done on Murali’s action. ‘Mark Nicholas’ is a thorough gentleman.

More context in the video:

Murali continues to astound cricket pundits and opposition players alike today - how he did what he did? After all he was just a Mountain Tamil.

PS: Murali has one thing in common with Zaheer Abbas, Mike Brearley, Glenn Turner and Shaun Tait. They are all Indian jamais(son-in-law).

Drafts of the article were read/edited by Rohit Kumar, Neelima Singh, Prince Diwakar and Anupam Sidhant.

Originally published on X. Follow for more: https://twitter.com/oshosidhant