Spinning into history

BBC Sport Online profiles Muttiah Muralitharan, the first off-spinner and the first Sri Lankan to take 400 Test wickets.

Form is temporary, class is permanent - so goes a well-known sporting adage.

But perhaps Muttiah Muralitharan is the exception, as form appears to be permanent in his case as well.

And his dismissal of Zimbabwe's Henry Olonga in Galle enabled him to tick off another milestone in a career which may well see him become the most successful bowler of all time before it is over.

Olonga was Muralitharan's 400th Test victim, a feat previously achieved by only one spin bowler - Australia's Shane Warne.

They are the only two spinners who inspire genuine fear among even the world's best batsmen.

Warne currently has 430 victims in Tests but Muralitharan, three years his junior, is catching up fast and has an excellent chance of becoming the first spinner to reach the 500-mark.

Here, Murali almost claims victim 396

It is a target he has already eyed with interest and at only 29, perhaps even 600 is a possibility before he retires.

Courtney Walsh's world record of 519 Test scalps is surely within Murali's grasp, providing he is happy to bowl the number of overs his captain Sanath Jayauriya so often demands.

Such has been his success, that it is sometimes easy to forget that his Test career was once in doubt because of controversy over his bowling action.

Ranatunga protest

He was no-balled by Australian umpire Darrell Hair during Sri Lanka's 1995-96 tour - the official later describing Muralitharan's action as "diabolical" in his autobiography.

The controversy surfaced again in 1999 when skipper Arjuna Ranatunga led Sri Lanka off the field during a one-day game against England in Adelaide after umpire Ross Emerson called Muralitharan for throwing.

It might have persuaded a less resilient character to give up the game he loved.

But exhaustive tests eventually proved his unique action was due to physical deformity in his right arm and Muralitharan used the stigma of being labelled a "chucker" as a spur to greatness.

"People were scared of me, so they tried to push me out of the game," he once claimed.

Muralitharan had taken nine wickets in an innings on one occasion prior to the Kandy Test, when he helped Sri Lanka beat England by 10 wickets at The Oval in 1998.

He had 16 victims in the match, the best performance of his career so far, but was denied all 10 in England's second innings when Alec Stewart was run out.

Celebrating another scalp with his captain

The son of a sweetshop owner, he was introduced to the game at St Anthony's College, a private school run by Benedictine monks.

But he bowled medium pace until conversing to spin at the age of 14 on the advice of the school coach.

All Sri Lankan cricket fans are grateful for that decision because the national team's array of talented batsmen, it is Muralitharan above all others who has made them a major force in world cricket.

His Test debut came against Australia in Colombo in 1992, and he gave a throughly respectable performance, taking three wickets - including Mark Waugh for a first-ball duck - in a drawn game.

Muralitharan's first five-wicket haul came against South Africa at Moratuwa a year later - and he has never looked back.

"When batsmen go into a shell, it helps me a lot in penetrating their defence. Similarly, if they are too aggressive, I know I will induce them to make a mistake," he has said.

Muralitharan truly is a master of cricket's mind games.