These extraordinary performances led Muttiah Muralitharan to state that Lara was the most dangerous batsman he had ever faced.

Muralitharan had previously held the record when he surpassed Courtney Walsh's 519 wickets in 2004, but he suffered a shoulder injury later that year and was then overtaken by Warne.

Muralitharan had not commenced bowling the doosra at this time.

In the 2012 season Muralitharan moved to Royal Challengers Bangalore where he took 14 wickets in 9 games and had an average economy rate of 6. 38.

Prior to the eventful Boxing Day Test of 1995, Muralitharan had captured 80 wickets in 22 Tests at an unflattering average of 32. 74.

The Sri Lankan camp was outraged after the incident, but the ICC leapt to Hair's defence, outlining a list of steps they had taken in the past to determine, without result, the legitimacy of Muralitharan's action .< ref name =" Muralitharan no-balled by Hair

In February 2009 he was ranked as the world's fifth-best Test bowler behind Muttiah Muralitharan, Dale Steyn, Stuart Clark and Mitchell Johnson, but had dropped to being 25th-best ODI bowler, according to the ICC rankings.

Cairns completed his blazing 50 and became even more cavalier with his wicket, eventually being stumped off Muralitharan as well, but the damage had already been done with the World XI looking at a score well above 300.

Raina had a difficult start to his international career, being dismissed first ball by Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.

Former Australian Test player, Bruce Yardley, who himself was an off spinner in his day, was assigned with the task of ensuring Muralitharan bowled all his deliveries with the same vigour as he would do so in match conditions when tested in 2004.

Although Hair reports in his book, " Decision Maker ", that at the end of the tea break he stated that he would call Muralitharan no matter which end he bowled he did not do so.

After being no-balled Muralitharan bowled a further 32 overs from umpire Steve Dunne's end without protest from either Dunne or Hair, at square leg.

Walsh is one of only four bowlers to have bowled over 5000 overs in Test cricket, the other three being spinners: Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka and Shane Warne of Australia, and Anil Kumble of India.

Amongst current players who have bowled over 2000 balls in Tests, only Muttiah Muralitharan has a better average.

Harris currently shares the world record for the most caught and bowled dismissals in ODIs with 29, the record is shared with Muttiah Muralitharan.

Stephen Fleming contributed a quickfire 30, losing batting partner Hayden for only 2 ( stumped off Muralitharan again ), before being clean bowled by Vaas.

Muttiah Muralitharan returned for Sri Lanka, and bowled well as usual, but the main reason West Indies lost seven wickets was due to run-outs-four of the wickets fell due to that-but a disciplined and patient bowling effort saw them to a 33-run win.

Despite this batting failure by the team, Kirtley hit his best ever score in a Test-12, off 25 deliveries, including a six, before being bowled by Muttiah Muralitharan.

In domestic cricket, Muralitharan has played for two first-class Sri Lankan sides, Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club in the Premier Trophy and Central Province in the Provincial Championship.

Since his debut in 1992, Muralitharan has taken 800 Test wickets and over 500 One Day International wickets, becoming the first player to take 1, 000 wickets combined in the two main forms of international cricket.

He returned at and continued with Muralitharan who was called two more times in his sixth over on the second and sixth balls.

Vaas took the first eight wickets of Zimbabwe's then record-lowest ODI innings of 38, with Muralitharan taking the final two wickets in his first over.

However, Ponting's performance was overshadowed by Australian umpire Darrell Hair no-balling Muralitharan for throwing on seven occasions, increasing tensions between the two teams.

1999 was an eventful year for Lancashire with the debut of Muttiah Muralitharan, the departure of coach Dav Whatmore after just two years with the club and again the team finished second in the championship and won the National League.

Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka and Graeme Swann of England are two of the most successful bowlers in Test and ODI cricket history, is an off-spinner, although his bowling style is unusual.

Muralitharan completed another twelve overs without further no-balls and, after bowling Mark Waugh, finished the day with figures of 18 – 3 – 58 – 1.

Muttiah Muralitharan, arguably the world's best spin bowler, came in for most of the punishment, being hit for seven sixes in just three overs.

He managed to score just three runs before being dismissed by Muttiah Muralitharan.

Cairns played for the ICC World XI and scored 69 off 47 balls before being stumped by Kumar Sangakkara off the bowling of Muttiah Muralitharan.

" Muralitharan announced his retirement from Test cricket after the first Test against India at Galle which commenced on 2010.

When his grandfather died at the age of 104 in July 2004, Muralitharan returned home from a tour of India to attend his funeral.

According to his manager, Kushil Gunasekera, Muralitharan qualifies for this status because his family originates from India.

The name Muralitharan is derived from murli dhar ( Devnagri: म ु रल ी धर ) meaning " the bearer of the flute ", which is a synonym for Lord Krishna, a deity in Hinduism who is said to play upon his bamboo flute while looking after cattle.

The youthful Muralitharan went from strength to strength, playing a major part in Sri Lanka's back-to-back Test victories against England and New Zealand in 1992 – 93.

He started nervously, edging his first ball past first slip for a boundary from off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.

Users from other nations include Sri Lankans Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis, South African Johan Botha and Indian Harbhajan Singh.

When Muttiah Muralitharan withdrew from the 2004 tour to Australia, Chandana came into the Test side as the main spin bowler.

Batticaloa is the primary focus of attention of Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, better known as Karuna Amman, a former LTTE commander who broke away from the main organization in 2004.

Cairns also contributed the shot of the match, a straight-driven 6 off Muttiah Muralitharan from halfway down the pitch.

A recently retired cricketer who was greatly embroiled in controversy and under scrutiny from critics over his method of executing deliveries was the Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.

During the 1995 Boxing Day Test at the MCG, Australian umpire Darrell Hair called Sri Lankan spin bowler Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing the ball, rather than bowling it, seven times during the match.

During the second Test between Sri Lanka and Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Boxing Day 1995, Australian umpire Darrell Hair called Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing in front of a crowd of 55, 239.

* December 26 in Melbourne – umpire Darrell Hair no balls Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan seven times for throwing in the second Test against Australia.

* In 1999, Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan was called for throwing by umpire Ross Emerson in a One Day International against England.

One notable incident was when Sri Lanka temporarily stopped play against England when Muttiah Muralitharan was called for throwing by umpire Darrell Hair.

Michael Selvey describes the accusations placed on the bowler in relation to his widely disputed bowling action and delivery, stating the Australian president ’ s reference to the Sri Lankan as a ‘ chucker .’ The controversy linked to Muralitharan ’ s delivery emerged in 1995, when the umpire of the test match between Sri Lanka and Australia deemed Muralitharan ’ s delivery as illegal on the suspicion that he was throwing the ball.