Steve Waugh recalls a 1995-96 controversial incident involving Muralitharan

Sri Lankan Cricket was blessed to have one of best off-spinners of all time Muttiah Muralitharan in their armoury who instilled fear in the minds of opposition batters all around the world with his variations. He achieved many aspiring feats in his cricketing career including the milestone of 800 Test wickets in 133 matches. Former Australia captain Steve Waugh recalled an incident from the 1995-96 Boxing Day Test match, where the on-field umpire Darrell Hair called every delivery bowled by the Lankan spinner a no-ball.

Muttiah had a unique action as compared to rest of the spinners which made it tough at times for even some of the batsmen to figure and pick the deliveries bowled by the legendary cricketer. He had represented his country in 133 Tests and 350 ODIs in which he picked up 800 and 534 wickets. These are certainly incredible record breaking numbers which also depicts the ability of the Lankan spin-legend.

The umpire was being unfair

Waugh feels that at that moment the umpire Hair was being very much disrespectful and unfair to Muralitharan by penalizing him after every consecutive delivery at this level of the game. The former Aussie also understands the fact that the umpire thought that the Lankan off-spinner was bowling in an illegal manner. But he mentioned that things should have been a lot differently.

“I just thought it was a bit unfair. Darrell Hair believed Muralitharan was bowling illegally. It was ugly to see a player (being misjudged) at such a big spectacle. It should have been sorted in a different way. To me that is demeaning and disrespectful to a player,” said Waugh recalling the past incident as quoted by cricket.com.

Muralitharan has forgotten that incident

Though Waugh had the thing of past in his mind but the Lankan legend admitted that he has forgotten the incident and has indeed forgiven the umpire for his misdeeds. He stated that everyone tends to make some mistakes and it is a part of life. The former Lankan cricketer said that he was happy after his action was cleared by the ICC following the controversial incident and has moved on from there.

“I have forgiven [Hair] and forgotten. I had been very upset with him, but I have let it go. I am not upset with him. People do make mistakes and I think he made a mistake. My action has been cleared. But I’m not going to look at the past anymore,” said Muralitharan forgiving umpire Darrel Hair.