Muttiah Muralitharan has set his
eyes on 1000 Test wickets after becoming only the second bowler in
history to reach the 700-mark.
The champion off-spinner achieved the landmark with the last ball of
the third and final Test against Bangladesh in Kandy that secured
Sri Lanka's victory by an innings and 193 runs.
Muralitharan is only nine wickets away from surpassing retired Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne's world record
of 708 to become the most successful
bowler ever in the game.
But the 35-year-old wants to play until the next limited-overs World Cup
in 2011 and hopes he will add another 300 Test wickets to his kitty by
then.
"It is a big achievement taking 700 wickets but I think I can achieve a
little bit more," Muralitharan told reporters. "I anyway knew I was going
to get to 700. The challenge is whether I can take 1000 Test wickets
before I retire.
"I am now thinking about playing until the next World Cup."
Muralitharan reached the 700-wicket mark when he had
Bangladesh's last man Syed Rasel caught in the deep by Farveez
Maharoof to signal a 3-0 sweep of the series by the hosts.
He finished with six wickets in each innings to claim 10 wickets or more in a Test for the 20th time.
Muralitharan was named man of the series in which he claimed 26 wickets, taking his tally against Bangladesh to an astonishing 76
wickets in just nine Tests.
It took him just 12 Tests to move from 600 to 700 wickets.
Sri Lanka are due to tour Australia for two Test matches in November, but
Muralitharan was unsure of becoming the leading bowler in Warne's
backyard.
"The record will come sometime in the near future, but I am not sure it
will happen in Australia because the wickets there usually help fast
bowlers," he said.
"I don't know how much I will get to bowl in Australia because our fast
bowlers could grab most of the wickets.
"But I am delighted to get to 700 in Kandy which is my home town. I could
not have asked for more."
Muralitharan, a veteran of 113 Tests who made his debut against Australia
in 1992, said he had worked hard over the last 15 years to become one of
the most feared bowlers in the game.
"So many years at the top takes a lot out of you but I am still hungry for
wickets and that is what matters."
The spinner was controversially called for throwing by Australian umpire
Darrell Hair during Sri Lanka's tour Down Under in 1995.
Two years later, another Australian umpire, Ross Emerson, called
Muralitharan during a one-day series there, prompting a bio-mechanical
analysis of his bowling action at the University of Western Australia in
Perth.
The International Cricket Council cleared Muralitharan and his bowling
action has not been questioned any more by umpires around the world.
