Muttiah Muralitharan, rated as the greatest Test match bowler ever by Wisden Cricketers ' Almanack, and the highest wicket-taker in both Test cricket and in One Day Internationals ( ODIs ), has hailed Lara as his toughest opponent among all batsmen in the world.

Even though his name has been widely romanised as Muralitharan since the commencement of his career, the cricketer himself prefers to romanise his name as Muralidaran.

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.

Notable contemporary off spinners include, Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka, who has the most wickets in both ODIs and Test matches, Saqlain Mushtaq and Saeed Ajmal of Pakistan and Graeme Swann of England.

The batting of Sanath Jayasuriya ( retired ) and Aravinda de Silva ( retired ), backed up by the bowling of Muttiah Muralitharan ( retired ) and Chaminda Vaas ( retired ), among many other talented cricketers, has underpinned the successes of Sri Lankan cricket during the last 15 years.

A specialist bowler, he has the second-highest number of Test wickets by an off spinner, behind Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan.

This record has since been surpassed by Muttiah Muralitharan.

* Akram was the first bowler in international cricket to take more than 400 wickets in both forms of the game and only Muttiah Muralitharan has since achieved this.

Kaluwitharana has spent a number of years contributing to charity work in the impoverished Northern part of Sri-Lanka along with his long-time cricket companion Muttiah Muralitharan.

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

He has stated, though, that he has nothing personal against Muralitharan, although Muralitharan has threatened to sue him.

This delivery has been employed by other famous bowlers after Saqlain Mushtaq like Muttiah Muralitharan and Saeed Ajmal.

* Muttiah Muralitharan with 42 scalps has captured the most number of wickets at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium.

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

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

However, a second method used by Muttiah Muralitharan is for the arm to be rotated further so that the back of the hand is facing the batsman ; the ball is then given a large amount of spin by flexion of the wrist.

* 1972 – Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lankan cricketer

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.

Muttiah Muralitharan (; ) ( also spelt as Muralidaran ; born 1972 ), often referred to as Murali, is a former Sri Lankan cricketer who was rated the greatest Test match bowler ever by Wisden Cricketers ' Almanack in 2002.

In 2007, when Cricket Australia decided to unveil the new Warne-Muralidaran Trophy, to be contested between Australia and Sri Lanka, Muralitharan was requested to clarify how his name should be spelt.

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.

In Sri Lanka's humiliating drubbing at the hands of India in 1993 – 94, where all three Tests were innings defeats, Muralitharan was the sole success, with 12 wickets in the rubber.

In Sri Lanka's first triumph on foreign soil, Muralitharan confused the crease-bound New Zealanders on a grassy pitch in Dunedin.

The Sri Lankan manager Duleep Mendis ' claim that Muralitharan can turn the ball on concrete was confirmed.

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.

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

** Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lankan cricketer

In Oct 2010, Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan called him one of the best players in cricket on par with Sachin Tendulkar.

After accusations of ball tampering were levelled against the tourists in the First Test, leading spinner Muttiah Muralitharan was no-balled seven times in the Second Test, and during the ODI series, the Sri Lankans accused Taylor's men of cheating.

Steve Waugh described Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan as " the Don Bradman of bowling ", while former Australian Prime Minister John Howard was called " the Don Bradman of politics " by his Liberal Party colleague Joe Hockey.

* May 8 – Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan breaks Courtney Walsh's world record of 519 Test wickets with his 520th wicket against Zimbabwe in Harare

He achieved his 300th wicket on 12 December 2005 against India, becoming only the second Sri Lankan bowler to pass this milestone, after Muttiah Muralitharan.

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

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.

Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis are dangerous Sri Lankan bowlers with seamer Lasith Malinga the slinger.

The shot was pioneered by Kevin Pietersen, first performed off the bowling of Muttiah Muralitharan in England's 2006 home series against Sri Lanka.

During the most recent controversy involving the bowling action of Sri Lanka great Muttiah Muralitharan, which led to an International Cricket Council investigation of most of the world's international-class bowlers, Sarwan was found to be the only bowler tested who did not transgress the Laws of Cricket regarding the straightening of the arm during delivery.

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.

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

When the former visited Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami to aid Muralitharan in his " great work " there, he developed an amiable rapport with his long-time foe: " We even wagged ," he confirmed later.

The Galle stadium is also noted for the fact that in 2010 it was the stadium that hosted the last match of arguably one of the best cricketer produced by Sri Lanka, Muttiah Muralitharan.

Sri Lanka won that Test, with Muttiah Muralitharan claiming his 709th Test wicket to go past Shane Warne as the highest wicket taker in Test cricket.

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.

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.