Cricket: Reviled spinner may not return

SYDNEY - Sri Lankan cricket captain Arjuna Ranatunga believes controversial offspinner Muttiah Muralitharan will never want to go back to Australia.

Muralitharan was no-balled for throwing in Adelaide last week by Australian umpire Ross Emerson, one of three officials who called him on Sri Lanka's previous tour of Australia in 1995-96.

The incident caused Ranatunga to lead his men to the edge of the field for 14 minutes while he took instructions from Sri Lankan cricket board officials over the phone.

For his actions, Ranatunga faced suspension for a maximum six one-day matches for failing to uphold the spirit and laws of the game but at a hearing his lawyers exploited loopholes in the code of conduct and the ban was suspended for 12 months, although he was fined 75 per cent of his match fee.

"If I was Murali, I would never come back to Australia," Ranatunga said. "The media has been really bad and the crowds have been really bad, jeering him whenever he bowls.

"This problem only seems to happen in Australia. He has bowled in front of umpires all over the world for nine years and nobody else has had a problem."

Muralitharan, meanwhile, has been denied permission to fulfil his English county cricket commitments as Lancashire's overseas player.

Muralitharan, who replaced Pakistan allrounder Wasim Akram as the county's overseas signing, has been told that as a contracted player to the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka, he will not be released. The spinner was signed up by Lancashire on Akram's recommendation that they sign a top-class spinner to replace him.

"He is very weak and we want him to rest and that's why the decision has been made," BCCSL president Thilanga Sumathipala said.

Muralitharan will undergo surgery on the shoulder of his bowling arm and Sumathipala said the 27-year-old would miss the forthcoming Asian test championship.

"He is our key bowler and we don't want to risk losing him. That's why we want to rest him," Sumathipala said. But Sri Lanka's decision not to release Muralitharan is also based on fears that he will miss the country's first test against Australia later this year.- AAP