KEY POINTS:
We're never going to beat Muttiah Muralitharan at his own particular game, even though the Black Caps beat Sri Lanka now and then. It's probably about time that we joined him, at least in spirit.
There will always be an asterisk next to Murali's name in many people's
minds when they look over a career which may take the wristy off-spinner past Shane Warne as the greatest wicket taker in test cricket.
No wonder then that one-time New Zealand batting maestro Martin Crowe has called Murali's action into account again, especially as the Sky cricket boss feels he has video evidence to prove Murali has slipped.
As for the claim by the former Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga that Crowe's dissent is partly a case of anti-Asian racism ... it is fair to expect the roly-poly Ranatunga to vigorously defend his countryman but to decline to question anyone on the basis of their race is surely racism itself.
Crowe speaks for many cricket observers, the public in other words, who know that Murali's reverse wrong-un - the famous doosra - often looks wrong.
The history of this is about as unsatisfactory as the man's action. It includes the ICC changing their bowling rules midway through Murali's career to incorporate his action. The general impression is that the international cricket body showed sympathy for Murali's cause because he was born with a crooked arm which has been described as a deformity, although in cricket terms it might now be seen as an enormous advantage. Bent-armed kids - your country needs you.
Either that, or the ICC took the easiest way out.
Bending the rules to fit in a bent arm makes about as much sense as letting a competitive swimmer use flippers because he was born with tiny feet. Murali's wrist provides the unusual spin, but it is his outrageous arm flick which gives the ball the necessary propulsion.
Chucking is the achilles heel of international cricket and is not only found in the action of a famous spinner. I was once horrified to watch a delivery by our very own Kyle Mills from ground level, having seen nothing untoward while observing him in the provincial match from the low level Eden Park stands.
You could surmise that many of the world's great fast bowlers, with the exception of slingers like Jeff Thomson, have deliberately or inadvertently bent the arm when searching for extra pace.
The difference with Murali though is that a regular and very specific delivery makes many of us wince, and no amount of ICC rule changing and scientific experiments will alter that perception. Modern examination apparently shows many bowlers over history extended past the five degrees. But the extent of the 2005 rule change, increasing the allowance to 15 degrees, had Murali written all over it.
Yet the other side to the Murali issue is the way such mavericks can bring excitement to cricket, together with victories.
New Zealand cricket needs to embrace and encourage the outsiders, the unusual, the carnival acts who can turn magical tricks into stellar careers. It is struggling not only for victories, but for the genius which brings crowds through the gates and provides headlines. We have too much useful and hardly any wonderful.
There is a sameness to New Zealand cricketers, suggesting it is a sport of closed minds and ranks. Had Murali turned up at a club near you, he would have been sent packing.
For all the classic greats, men like Crowe, Ricky Ponting, Glenn McGrath and so on, cricket has also been fired by those who dreamed of doing it differently. Murali, Warne, Kevin Pietersen, Adam Gilchrist, "Malinga the Slinger" - where would the game be without them.
You have to love the magic of Murali, an off-spinner who decided he could turn a dirt pitch into corrugated iron. Fascinated, you are almost compelled to mimic Murali's goggled-eye look as he makes the ball rip this way and that - a revolutionary spinner putting extra revolutions on the ball. He is a man who invites responses as confused as the men who have to face him. Brilliant, yet flawed to many of us. It would be a travesty if he overtakes Warne, who was as clean in his action as he was controversial off the field.
Yet a doubter like me also has the sneaky feeling that cricket has been all the better for Murali.
Hopefully, our cricket kids are inspired and instructed by his wizardry and spirit.
Speaking of goggled eyes ... a text message on Friday night suggested turning on the television to watch the New Zealand Knights "if you're not already doing so".
I wasn't already doing so.
There, at the top of the screen, came the news that New Zealand's professional soccer side were leading the Queensland Roar 3-0. I stared at those numbers the way I stare at the ones at the bottom of telephone bills.
How can this be so?
What's more, the rest of the game revealed that the Knights can actually pass the ball to each other. They were oh-so composed in shutting the game down, although passing the ball around in the defensive third has always been a strength of the New Zealand game. What might have been, you had to think, relating this event to the rest of their pathetic season.
New coach Ricki Herbert has worked a one-off miracle. Maybe there is life in this sporting dog yet.
