| Player: | M Muralitharan |
| Event: | ICC World Cup 2010/11 |
DateLine: 29th November 2009
Muttiah Murlitharan, the leading wicket-taker in tests has hinted that he may retire before the 2011 World Cup in the Asian sub-continent. Currently on his final overseas tour, Murali has struggled to replicate his past success against a strong Indian batting line-up. He has picked up only 5 wickets in the series at an ordinary average of 79.20.
"I am 37 years old and I can't bowl as much as those days because I get tired after 15-16 overs. But I will try and play a little bit of one-day cricket, that's only 10 overs to bowl. If I find everything is not going well I might retire from both forms of the game before the World Cup," Murali said.
"Everything depends on how much my body can take. In Test cricket it's a little bit harder because I have always been a threat to other sides. At the moment it's not looking like that because others are playing me well. I think I made the right decision to retire from Test cricket at the end of the West Indies series next year.
"Two to three years ago it was not like this. Now you have niggles here and there and my groin is not the same as it used to be. We got the worst bowling conditions in the last two Tests. We didn't have the bowlers, that was one of the factors. But that's the way cricket goes, everything won't work in your favour."
"I've played only eight Tests this year: two against Bangladesh, two against Pakistan, and two against New Zealand when I really did well bowling in the second innings of the second Test with a groin injury," he said. "Whenever the side wanted a breakthrough I've got it for them in the New Zealand series. I don't why it's not happening here.
"You have to give credit to India also for playing well. Whatever we were expecting didn't happen. Even the spinners didn't do well in any Test because everyone was not up to the mark and the wicket was not assisting them."
Murali said he wouldn't be overly disappointed if Sri Lanka failed to register their maiden victory on Indian soil. "Every cricketer has to go through disappointments. Everything you want to happen in life won't happen, something will be missing. Looking back I can say what an amazing career I have gone through but if we can't win in India that's it. Life has to go on."