The world we inhabit is indeed getting poorer with each passing day in terms of legends, as we are losing stalwarts from every sphere of life with alarming frequencies. This Saturday ie March 5 turned out to be extremely distressing for the world of cricket, especially Australia, as two all-time greats in their respective eras passed into ages. As we were mourning the loss of Rodney Marsh another catastrophe struck in the form of the untimely death of the spin wizard Shane Warne within a space of a few hours. The Aussie wicketkeeper was not keeping well for a while, but Warne’s demise was totally unexpected and unfathomable.
As copious tears were being shed over this unexpected turn of events suddenly out of the blue a new debate got triggered, courtesy of Sunil Gavaskar. The prolific India batter in his inimitable style claimed that Warne was unarguably one of the greatest spinners of world cricket but not the GOAT. And the ultimate title of greatest of all time spinners has to be given either to Muttiah Muralitharan or some Indian spinners. The statement from one of the best batsmen of the 70s and 80s has indeed ruffled a few feathers. There will be several former as well as current players who would or wouldn’t agree with Sunny’s observation. So, it is time to examine clearly as to where the duo, Warne-Murali, stands in terms of domination in world cricket.
Murali An Emperor At Home, But Warne A Universal Boss
Muralitharan was almost invincible at home ie. Sri Lanka (493 wickets from 73 matches), but had a less than satisfactory record overseas. It is common knowledge that Sri Lankan pitches were tailor-made to suit Murali’s bowling and he obviously made a killing out of them. But in Australia, Murali had a very ordinary record as he has bagged just 12 wickets in five matches. His strike rate happens to be 131, implying that he takes 22 overs to get a wicket. Overall, he has 59 from 13 matches against Oz at an average of 36.06. Very poor for a bowler of Murali’s stature indeed.
On the contrary, Warne has a very good record in alien conditions ie. foreign with the exception of India. The Aussie leg spinner’s performances against South Africa and in Ashes are simply enviable, to say the least. Warne had 130 wickets from 24 matches against the Proteas, the second-best side in the 90s and the better part of the new millennium. Over here, some might argue that South Africans are very poor at playing spin but Warne has excelled even in spin-unfriendly pitches of the Rainbow Nation, 2002 series-clinching performance at Cape Town for example.
Even in the Ashes series, Warne had a record to die for with 195 wickets in 36 games at a strike rate of 55.1. This means Warne had a clear edge over Murali outside the comforts of home conditions. Also, Australia was not exactly a spinners’ paradise where also Warne has had excellent returns as a bowler.
Lack of Match-winners In Lanka Suited Murali
Murali was Sri Lanka’s trump card and their most potent weapon as long as he played for his national side. This has worked in favour of Murali as he got a large quota of overs to secure wickets. For Sri Lanka, the wily off-spinner used to wage a lone war with little to no assistance from other bowlers with the exception of Chaminda Vaas. This aspect made him bowl a large percentage of overs in Lanka’s quest for wickets.
Whereas Warne played in an era where the majority of players in the Aussie squad used to be match-winners on any given day. In terms of quick bowling options, Aussie were millionaires with the likes of McGrath, Gillespie, Bret Lee, Kasprovich etc in the final XI. In such a scenario, it is highly unlikely that Warne would have got an elephant share of overs like Murali. For Example, Lankan off-spinner bowled 32 overs per innings while Warne bowled just 25. So, Murali’s position as a sole match-winner in the Sri Lanka team worked to his advantage as he got more overs to get wickets compared to Warne.
Murali Got Huge Chunk of Wickets Against Weak Teams
The effectiveness or potency of a bowler can be best gauged against the teams he excels against. On this count, it is worth noting that Murali scalped a huge percentage of wickets against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, two of the minnows in the world cricket currently. For Example,176 of his 800 wickets have come against these two teams.
As for Warne, he has only played 3 Tests against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, but the Oz Legend has picked an astonishing 17 wickets against these two teams. Hence, it only becomes easier to guess the number of wickets Warne would have ended up with had he played against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh more frequently. This makes it very apparent that for his 708 wickets Warne would have had to break into a sweat on more occasions than Murali.
Warne’s Ahead In Terms Of Series Defining Performances As Well
Another yardstick to judge a bowler is by assessing the series-defining performances of his career. In this regard, Warne has 8 from 46 series and Murali has 10 from 61 series. Well, this would give an impression that there is nothing much to choose between the two, but there is more to it than what meets the eyes. Out of Murali’s 10 series-defining performances, seven have come in Sri Lanka. With regard to Warne, only two have come in Australia and three have come in England, where pitches are anything but suitable for spin bowling. Also, Murali had just one impact performance in England and New Zealand out of the 10. Well at this point, we can only think of a new version of Shakira’s chartbuster: Stats Don’t Lie.
Lastly,
It is not fair to compare two of the greats of the game but when Gavaskar opened up the pandora’s box it was only appropriate to close the debate once and forever. As for the legendary player’s contention that Warne had a poor record against Indian batters, who relish leg-spin, even Murali’s record is anything but outstanding. The Sri Lankan offie had just 40 wickets from 14 matches at a strike rate of 86.2, whereas Warne had 43 wickets from the same number of matches with a strike rate of 91. So, there is nothing to establish the superiority of Murali over Warne in light of these statistics.
Finally, as we bid adieu to the memories of Warne we can only say that the Wizard of Oz was miles above his Sri Lankan counterpart and the throne of GOAT spinner sits well on the head of Warne than Murali.
