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SYDNEY - Sixteen years ago Bruce Yardley was in Sri Lanka conducting a clinic for spin bowlers when he encountered an intense young cricketer with a curious bowling action.
Yardley, a former test offspinner for Australia, watched him bowl a few balls and wondered if he might be throwing.
He saw that the young man had a deformity in his right arm and suggested he should try to get more side-on in his delivery stride.
He stood back and marvelled at how quickly his advice was taken on board.
"I expected him to take six months to get side-on," Yardley said.
"It took him three balls. It was just stunning.
"I came back to Australia and I said to people here: 'I have seen a kid who is going to turn the spin bowling world upside down'."
The kid was Muttiah Muralitharan, and he did indeed turn the spin bowling world upside down.
He arrived in Australia this week for a two-test series requiring nine wickets to supplant Shane Warne as the greatest wicket-taker in test history.
From that first encounter with Yardley, who was later to become Sri Lankan national coach, Murali's career has been profoundly influenced by Australians - not always to his benefit.
Within a year of meeting Yardley, Murali was in the test side, making his debut in a drawn match against Allan Border's Australians in Colombo.
The first test player to fall to his baffling, wrist-snapping action was Craig McDermott.
His other two victims in that game were genuine batsmen - Mark Waugh and Tom Moody - the latter of whom later became a trusted guide and confidant as Murali's national coach.
Murali has also been coached by John Dyson and Dav Whatmore, but it is fair to say that no Australian has changed his life more than umpire Darrell Hair.
When Hair extended his arm and called "no ball" in Melbourne on Boxing Day in 1995 the lives of both men changed forever.
There had been whispers about Murali's action ever since he first played the game.
Hair turned the whispers into a shout - literally.
Murali's action became the subject of international debate. He subsequently undertook a series of biomechanical tests in Perth and Hong Kong, where the boffins cleared his action by saying that it created the "optical illusion of throwing".
It only served to heighten the controversy.
Then another Australian umpire, Ross Emerson, called him during a one-day game in Australia in 1998-99.
More tests ensued, and again Murali was cleared.
In 2004 Murali took his 500th test wicket in a home series against Australia (who else?) only to have his action queried by International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee Chris Broad.
This gave rise to yet more tests, and ultimately the discovery by the new generation of super slow-motion cameras which showed that virtually all bowlers flex their elbows at some stage during delivery.
There was no doubting Murali's elbow was bent. He couldn't straighten it if he tried.
But what became apparent was that so was every other bowler's.
The ICC was given little option but to change the law to account for elbow flexion of up to 15 degrees.
As Yardley, one of his staunchest supporters, put it: "If they were going to target Murali, they had to target just about everyone else."
Things weren't helped when Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who in his younger days claimed to have bowled off-breaks, labelled Murali a chucker.
It was a factor in Murali pulling out of the 2004 winter tour of Australia, and it was only the trauma of the Boxing Day tsunami six months later, which devastated Sri Lanka, that changed his thinking.
He came to play in a series of benefit matches in which Australians heckled him, but also dug deep to support his beleaguered country.
Perhaps they had a heart after all.
While all this was happening, Murali was staging a private duel with Warne - a good mate - to see who could take the most test wickets.
Warne finished his career in January this year with 708.
Murali touched down in Adelaide this week with 700.
Australian captain Ricky Ponting believes Murali is a truly great bowler, but he is hell bent on making sure Warne is still the record holder when the Sri Lankans leave town.
"He's a world class act," Ponting said.
"But it would be nice if he left Australia not getting those nine wickets in two test matches.
"If that's the case then we'll have done a pretty good job.
"He's also made it pretty clear over the years that he feels that Australian batsmen play him better than any other team in the world.
"Hopefully we can keep him under wraps."
In fact, Murali's record against Australia is comparatively moderate - 55 wickets in 11 tests at an average of 31 (against an overall average of 21).
He's only ever got Ponting out once (caught and bowled for 96), and in two tests for Sri Lanka in Australia his analysis reads three for 348.
Playing for the ICC World 11 in the Super test in Sydney in 2005 he did a little better, with two for 102 and three for 55.
Murali is prepared for the heckling he is bound to receive this summer, including the cries of "no ball" when he starts his spells.
According to Moody, who coached him until this year, he is coming to terms with how Australians react to him.
"He's hugely disappointed with the reaction of the Australian public and I think that's a lot to do with the fact that Shane Warne's an Australian, because everywhere else in the world he doesn't get anything like the reaction he gets in Australia," Moody said.
"It's quite sad really, but it is that way.
"I've tried to explain to Murali ... that Australian cricket followers react that way because they fear and respect what (he's) bringing to the table.
"It's not a hatred by any means. It's more a sign of respect."
- AAP
