Howard’s U-turn, now pat for Murali

Jul 08, 2010 - Bipin Dani |

pune

Six years after he called Sri lankan spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan a chucker, and enraged an entire country, former Australian PM John Howard has done a volte-face.
“I believe that Muralitharan is a very good bowler,” Howard told this newspaper on Wednesday, “He is a wonderful bowler and should to be congratulated for becoming the world’s highest wicket taker.”

In 2004, Howard had stirred up a controversy when he responded with a “yes”, when asked whether Murali chucked. “They proved it in Perth too, with that thing,” he added, referring to a video screen that was replaying Murali’s action.
His comment snowballed into a diplomatic row between Lanka and Australia, and led to Muralitharan indicating that he would skip future tours to Australia. The 38-year-old later changed his mind after the ICC cleared his action.

Comments

Mr Howard is a politician. I

Neil Gillespie

08 Jul 2010 - 09:40

Mr Howard is a politician. I don't think the ICC will be convinced about this change in attitude by Mr Howard. He is desperately after the ICC support. I don't think that the ICC members will be conned by this cynical attempt to convince the ICC he is a changed man.

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