Muralidaran Retires In Third Position

Sri Lanka’s iconic spinner Muttiah Muralidaran retired from Test cricket on Thursday after dominating the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers for the best part of his glittering 18-year career.

The 38-year-old champion off-spinner, who finished with 800 wickets from 133 Tests, bowed out in third position behind Dale Steyn of South Africa and Pakistan’s Mohammad Asif after climbing two spots in the latest rankings following his figures of 5-63 and 3-128 which set-up a 10-wicket victory for Sri Lanka in the first Test of the three-match series in Galle.

The Kandy-born spinner had first surged to the top of the bowling rankings in January 2002 after his match figures of 9-91 which not only paved the way for Sri Lanka to make a clean sweep of the three-Test series against Zimbabwe but also made him the quickest bowler to reach 400 Test wickets.

He went on to spend a record 214 Tests and 1,711 days in number-one position. Australia’s former Test fast bowler Glenn McGrath has the second best record, having enjoyed the coveted No.1 ranking for 174 Tests.

Within a year of making his Test debut Test against Australia at Colombo, Muralidaran broke into the top 20 when he jumped to 19th position in September 1993 at P.Sara Oval in Colombo against South Africa and then never dropped out. The closest he came to slipping out of the top 20 was in March 1997 against New Zealand in Dunedin when he was briefly in 20th position.

Muralidaran’s rating was consistently above 800 and often above 900 ratings points, an indicator of sustained and outstanding performances.

His tally of 920 ratings points in July 2007 during the home series against Bangladesh marked his peak as a bowler. It is the fourth highest rating achieved to date by a bowler after Sydney Barnes (932), George Lohmann (931) and Imran Khan (922).

While his average career rating was 770, he is also the only Sri Lanka bowler to achieve more than 800 ratings points. His former team-mate Chaminda Vaas peaked at 800 in 2005.

Meanwhile, Lasith Malinga has returned to the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test bowler after his man of the match performance in Galle. The fast bowler took 7-105 and has re-entered in 25th position.

The bowlers dropping in the latest rankings include Ishant Sharma 22nd (down by one place), Rangana Herath 31st (down by six places) and Pragyan Ojha 58th (down by nine places).

In the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen, India opener Gautam Gambhir, middle-order batsmen Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni have failed to retain their places.

Gambhir has slipped six places to 10th position, Laxman has fallen two places to 15th position, Dravid has dropped one place to 18th place while Dhoni has fallen four places to 40th spot.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara has swapped places with his predecessor Mahela Jayawardena. India’s Virender Sehwag, who scored 109 and 31, has opened up a 14-point gap over second-placed Sangakkara.

ICC Test Player Rankings (as of 23 July, after the first Test between Sri Lanka and India in Galle)

Batsmen

Rank      (+/-)        Player                   Team     Points    Ave         HS Rating
1           ( – )          Virender Sehwag  Ind          866!       53.78     866 v SL at Galle 2010
2           (+1)         K.Sangakkara      SL           852         55.44     938 v Eng at Kandy 2007
3           (-1)          M.Jayawardena   SL           830         53.92     883 v Ind at Ahmedabad 2009
4           (+1)         Michael Clarke    Aus         818         50.96     855 v Eng at Headingley 2009
5=        (+1)         S.Chanderpaul     WI          807         49.28     901 v NZ at Napier 2008
(+1)         Simon Katich       Aus         807!       47.67     807 v Pak at Lord’s 2010
7           (+1)         S.Tendulkar          Ind          795         55.48     898 v Zim at Nagpur 2002
8           (+1)         Jacques Kallis       SA           791         55.07     935 v NZ at Centurion 2007
9           (+1)         Graeme Smith      SA           787         50.49     843 v Eng at Johannesburg 2010
10         (-6)          G.Gambhir            Ind          773         52.83     886 v SL at Kanpur 2009
11         ( – )          Ross Taylor          NZ          766         43.13     775 v Pak at Wellington 2009
12         ( – )          AB de Villiers        SA           762!       45.50     762 v WI at Bridgetown 2010
13         (+1)         Younus Khan       Pak         747         50.09     880 v SL at Lahore 2009
14         (+1)         Hashim Amla       SA           745         45.10     842 v Ind at Kolkata 2010
15         (-2)          VVS Laxman       Ind          740         46.62     753 v Aus at Sydney 2004
16         ( – )          Ricky Ponting       Aus         719         54.83     942 v Eng at Adelaide 2006
17         (+1)         Tamim Iqbal        Ban        707*!    40.13     707 v Eng at Old Trafford 2010
18         (-1)          Rahul Dravid        Ind          696         53.53     892 v Pak at Kolkata 2005
19         (+1)         Mike Hussey        Aus         689         52.21     921 v WI at Kingston 2008
20         (-2)          T.Samaraweera   SL           687         50.48     747 v Ind at Kanpur 2009

Bowlers

Rank      (+/-)        Player                   Team     Points    Ave         Econ      HS Rating
1           ( – )          Dale Steyn            SA           887         23.13     897 v Ind at Ahmedabad 2008
2           ( – )          M.Asif                    Pak         787*      23.21     792 v Aus at Sydney 2010
3           (+2)         M.Muralidaran    SL           772         22.72     920 v Ban at Kandy 2007
4           (-1)          Graeme Swann    Eng         761*      30.02     786 v Ban at Mirpur 2010
5           (-1)          Mitchell Johnson Aus         757         28.53     825 v Eng at Cardiff 2009
6           ( – )          Morne Morkel      SA           739*!    30.78     739 v WI at Bridgetown 2010
7           ( – )          Zaheer Khan        Ind          722         32.98     729 v SA at Kolkata 2010
8           ( – )          Harbhajan Singh Ind          675         31.28     765 v NZ at Wellington 2002
9           ( – )          James Anderson  Eng         656         34.26     710 v Aus at Edgbaston 2009
10         ( – )          Shakib Al Hasan Ban        640*!    32.52     640 v Eng at Old Trafford 2010
11         ( – )          Makhaya Ntini    SA           638         28.82     863 v Ind at Durban 2006
12         ( – )          Stuart Broad         Eng         626*      36.15     697 v SA at Durban 2009
13         ( – )          Daniel Vettori       NZ          609         33.86     681 v Aus at Auckland 2000
14         ( – )          Doug Bollinger     Aus         602*      24.00     616 v NZ at Hamilton 2010
15         ( – )          Danish Kaneria    Pak         593         34.21     723 v Eng at Multan 2005
16         ( – )          Jerome Taylor      WI          580*      35.64     717 v Eng at Kingston 2009
17=       ( – )          Peter Siddle           Aus         579*      31.53     617 v Eng at The Oval 2009
( – )          Umar Gul              Pak         579         33.83     627 v WI at Karachi 2006
19         ( – )          Paul Harris            SA           576*      37.10     705 v Eng at Centurion 2009
20         ( – )          R.Sidebottom       Eng         567*      28.24     769 v SA at Lord’s 2008

All-rounders

Rank      (+/-)        Player                   Team     Points    HS Rating
1           ( – )          Jacques Kallis       SA           442        616 v Pak at Durban 2002
2           ( – )          Daniel Vettori       NZ          393        412 v Pak at Napier 2009
3           ( – )          Shakib Al Hasan Ban        334 /*   355 v Eng at Mirpur 2010
4           ( – )          Graeme Swann    Eng         296*/*  327 v Ban at Chittagong 2010
5           ( – )          Dwayne Bravo     WI          268 /*   295 v Aus at Bridgetown 2008

*Indicates a provisional rating