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Ahead of tri-series, Murali hit with egg in Aus

Agencies

Posted online: Saturday , February 02, 2008 at 1821 hrs IST
      

Colombo, February 2:: Australian fans showed no let up in their hostility towards Muttiah Muralitharan and a group of fans threw an egg on the Sri Lankan spin wizard's face in Hobart.

"An egg was thrown at Muralitharan and it struck him", confirmed a top Sri Lankan cricket official, adding that the authorities were looking into the incident that happened on Friday night.

The Sri Lankans are in Australia to play a tri-nation ODI series, which also involves India.

The Island Newspaper reported that Sri Lankan cricketers, including Muralitharan, were jeered and attacked by some local residents in Hobart, when they were returning to their hotel after dinner on Friday night.

"The Sri Lanka team management had then taken action to safely guide the players back to their hotel and the police arrived at the scene," the Newspaper said.

The off spinner has had a history of hostility with the Australian spectators, who have jeered him on previous tours, forcing him to stop going Down Under for some time.

Muralitharan was no-balled by Aussie umpires and the bowler had to undergo laboratory tests to prove the legality of his bowling action.

Muralitharan's stormy relationship with Australian cricket stems back to Sri Lanka's 1995-96 tour of Down Under when controversial umpire Darrell Hair no-balled him.

Constantly jeered by the hostile crowd and branded a chucker by the then Australian Prime Minister John Howard, a hurt Muralitharan boycotted the tour in 2004.

After Hair, fellow Australian umpire Ross Emerson also called Muralitharan during a ODI series there.

Murali subsequently underwent a bio-mechanical analysis of his action at the University of Western Australia in Perth and cleared his name.

That, however, had little effect on the Australian crowd, which got even more hostile as the Sri Lankan looked set to overtake Shane Warne's world record of 708 Test wickets at the leggie's home turf.

Murali, however, finally achieved the feat when Sri Lanka hosted England last year.

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SHAME
by edwin deva on 2008-02-05 12:09:09.239268+05:30
The Aussies once again prove what they are made of actually it is in their blood, what the Asian teams have to do is stand up and say OK guys you play with the English, whom you can always beat without much fuz and have your ASHES urn carried all over Australia. May be the West Indies would bumsuck them as they did in 1996 during the world cup when they refused to play in Colombo. This is nothing new, they did it to Harbajan, the moment they feel someone is good or they can not handle they start up a similar thing. ACB is part of it and act like Saints later.It is a Shame that India and Sri lanka are touring this land of convicts. CALL OFF THE TOUR, get back home, the Aussies do not deserve to see the likes of Sachins, Laxmans, Jayasuyas and Muralis.It is a Shame.
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get stuffed
by jd on 2008-02-06 01:20:08.8401+05:30
good dont come back to australia, start you own competition and dont complain like little children you are when you dont get your own way, burn this burn that, in fact off of india should be banned from australia, bugger off and stay in your crap nation.
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Racist, bigoted, cheating, W. Trash Australians
by J. H. A. R. Khandi on 2008-02-03 13:51:10.793008+05:30
Australians, Maanki, picked on Harbhajan because he wears a turban. These uncouth criminal lot thinks anyone who wears turban is a Muslim and must be hated. Of course they hate brown skin, and Symonds is the show boy of their non existing racial equality. Anyway, it is hard to determine who is more despicable- racist Australians or their bootlicking grovelling black slaves like Symonds? I would put Symonds higher on the despicable rank because this guy has been so whitewashed by his slave masters that instead of whatever name his African ancestors had, he is now the Christian "Andrews", and hence "White" already. And of course he is likely to be proud to belong to a religion where bastard means Son of God whose father is unknown- i.e. the "Holy Spirit". hahahahahhah....
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Racism
by waxer on 2008-02-05 08:46:09.435781+05:30
Racism is a very isolated occurrence in Australia, partially because we have strong laws against it. It is against the law here to discriminate against anyone on the basis of religion, race, gender or other. We also have no discrimination due to class distinction. WE do have laws against mocking anothers religion. You obviously have none of those laws in India, or the above article would have drawn the attention of the authorities. The racism in your letter is so apparent that even your one eye can see it. Symonds is one of the most popular players in Australia- why is therefore a "bootlicking grovelling black slave" as you so elequently put it? I suggets you grow up and realise that because one person threw an egg it doesn't even come close to your antics in mimicking monkeys whenever Symonds came on. Besides, racism and class distinction is accepted in India- it is not in Australia.
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Bowling action
by H.P.Prasad on 2008-02-03 07:53:10.422879+05:30
The elbow bend rule of 4 degress was altered to 14 to accommodate Murali's action. Harbhajan Singh of India and Shoeb Akhtar of Pakistan do have an objectionable action and Sri Lanka's Malinga's bowling is like knocking mangoes off trees. Long live BCCI's big money !!
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Cry babies
by GS on 2008-02-03 02:33:20.7554+05:30
Shameful behavior, guess what would have happened if someone did this in the subcontinent, apparently the Ausies feelings get hurt more than the others.
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Australia and Racism are synonymous
by Hemant on 2008-02-03 01:40:11.741762+05:30
Australian cricket team, media, former prime minister, and majority of the public are racist. They fought so hard for an imaginary issue that they created for Symonds so they could basically create a precedent for themselves, that they weren't racist. I feel sorry for Symonds. I feel sorry for him because he knew all along that he was being used against Harbhajan and the Indian team and that is his only reason for existing in the Australian team. This latest attack on Muralitharan and prior acts of hate by the umpires in Australia prove the fact that Australians are a racist nation. ICC does not have any power and BCCI should use its financial clout to completely excorcise Australia from the cricket world. Stop going to Australia and stop inviting them to India. If Sri Lanka plays Australia in a particular year then bycott the Sri Lankans and the same goes for Bangladesh and Pakistan. Money works wonders. When the financial pinch is felt by these nations, they will start toeing the Indian line and bycott Australia. Eventually Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka can form a united block and do the same with England, New Zealand and South Africa. Once Australia finds it difficult to tour other nations and invite them to Australia they will learn a lesson. They should be put in the category of Zimbabwe. They should have to prove that they are not racist and they have a decent government before they are allowed to return to the cricket field.
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