by A.C. Yapa
by Dr. Sanjiva Wijesinha
English Newspapers
Daily Mirror
Sinhala Newspapers
Lakbima
Tamil Newspapers
It says much about Murali that you'll never hear a bad word spoken about him. Forget for a moment his prolific on-field record, Murali the man is deeply loved and enormously respected by team-mates and opponents alike. Kumar Sangakkara, his captain and close friend, summed it up most eloquently a few years ago: "The greatest tribute I can pay him is that I have met no finer man. He's great as a cricketer and even better as a human being."
Yet, somehow, Murali is still a little misunderstood. An Indian journalist asked me last week if it was true that Murali was a loner in the dressing room? I laughed out loud.
One thing is for sure: the Sri Lanka dressing room will be a far quieter place without him. Just as his bowling has dominated on the field, his effervescent personality fills any room he occupies. He's such a chatterbox, in fact, that his exhausted team-mates once challenged him to be completely silent for the duration of a three-hour coach trip to Kandy. He lasted about three minutes.
Sri Lankan Genealogy and others of interest at F’s Place
