Face-to-Face in Admonishment: Drama at the Adelaide Oval, 23rd January 1998-by Michael Roberts
Source:Thuppahis
Ashan de Alwis’s article in The Ceylon Journal Volume 1/1 published in mid-2024 is as readable and excellent an essay as anyone can wish for.[i] It focuses on the 50-over one-day cricket match between Australia and Sri Lanka played at Adelaide Oval on the 23rd January 1999 and specifically on the no-balling of Muralitharan for throwing by umpire Ross Emerson and captain Arjuna Ranatunga’s unprecedented actions in challenging the umpire.[1] This account is supported by a graphic picture – as iconic as world-famous unusual. It does not fail to note that the Sri Lankan batsmen, batting second, did not let Murali or the fans down: led by a Mahela Jayawardene century, they reached the massive England total of 303 in the last over with the last man Murali at the crease.
Ashan rightly notes that the “spirit of Sri Lanka was in full display in front of the world on this day; in the determination of the courageous young off-spinner, in the leadership of ‘Captain Cool’, in the youthful spark of the newcomer Mahela Jayawardene and in the incredible performance they put on display under fire under fire at the Adelaide Oval.”
I have lived in Adelaide since 1977 and was a spectator at this match. I was, at that stage, also the President of a local association called the Adelaide Friends of Sri Lanka Cricket. As such, I can supplement the tale of Murali’s struggles by details of some of the steps taken by Ranatunga, Manager Ranjit Fernando and other key administrators in the days immediately following this one-day match to combat the threat to Murali as bowler.
Before proceeding to retail these details, let me note that some of this data and the subsequent events in the Murali saga have been set out in a long article entitled “Murali under Siege: Action On-field and Off-field, 1995 -2005” which is a chapter in my book Incursions & Excursions In and Around Sri Lankan Cricket (Colombo, Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2011, chap. 5).
Our Adelaide Association had organised a dinner dance for the Lankan squad on the Sunday after the match. This gathering was at a restaurant in Gouger Street near the Hilton Hotel where the team was billeted. Both Ranjit Fernando and Arjuna were seated at the central table where I sat with one or two special invitees.[2] In consequence, I became privy to some of the plans and steps being taken by our cricket administrators to combat the orchestrated Aussie umpiring threat to Murali as bowler.
I can tell you that the telephone had been in constant use by our cricketing leaders that Saturday night and Sunday daytime. Thilanga Sumathipala in Colombo and Dr Quintus De Zylwa in Melbourne (SL cricket’s lead-man for Australia) were key centres of this frantic telephoning to and fro. But guess what? One of the aides and advisors was none other than the (late) Tony Greig. He had been one of the official commentators or whatever at the Adelaide Oval match; but his assessment of the Australian campaign against Murali (from inside knowledge derived from his location in the Australian media circuit) was such that did not hesitate to support the Sri Lankan cause. When Arjuna and Ranjit left the dinner party, one of them told me that Tony would be at the little gathering at the team hotel to draw up plans in defence of both Murali and Arjuna.
“The Murali Saga –the Sword of Aussie Damocles hanging over his bowling action” – did not, as we know, end there. It took several years till circa 2005 before the ICC visual examination cleared the actions of this unique bowler – a man with an unusual physiognomy of arm — were cleared as lawful.
That story has been spelt out …. and illustrated with a cluster of photographs and graphs … in an article entitled “Saving Murali: Action On-field and Off-field, 1995-2005” which was printed in 2011 in a book which I edited namely, Incursions & Excursions in and Around Sri Lankan Cricket (Karunaratna & Sons for Vijitha Yapa Publications, ISBN 978-955-531198-0-5).
Ashan de Alwis does not seem to be aware of this work. The photographs in this study would emphasize what he has missed. That article demonstrates that a wide arrange of personnel stepped up over the years 1995-2005 to demonstrate the legality of Murali’s action. They include
Dr Bruce Elliot and Daryl Foster at the UWA….
Dr Ravi Goonetilleke in Hong Kong
Dr Dhillon of the Apollo Hospital in Colombo
Kushil Gunasekera, Thilanga Sumathipala and Mohan de Silva at the Sri Lanka Board of Control for Cricket
Tony Greig in Australia as a key consultant and aide
Mark Nicholas in England as commentator and media man.
Murali being examined and deciphered by the UWA unit under Dr Elliot & Foster … & some graphic charts presented by Goonetilleke in Hong Kong
Ashan has displayed a photograph of Arjuna accosting umpire Emerson in headmaster style with admonishing finger. My article deploys the same picture; but proceeds to supplement it with another showing Arjuna leading the team to the boundary lines in protest. They did not leave the field.[3] The picture has a note which indicates that “Ranjit Fernando, Saliya Ahangama and the Match Referee entered the ground and negotiated with Ranatunga and the umpires”.
These pictures underline the contention that Ashan has indicated: what took place at Adelaide Oval on the 23 January 1999 was quite unique and unprecedented. Arjuna’s doughty stance in defence of a marvellous bowler with a unique arm and considerable guile surely stands out as Leadership and Guts Unimaginable.
ARJUNA RANATUNGA had experienced a tough 17/18 years of cricket by 1998 – including tough tours of Australia and New Zealand in the 1980s and 1990s and the no-balling saga targeting Murali which was pursued by Darrel Hair and Emerson in late 1995 with support from the Aussie coach Simpson and the ACB.** But he was also a determined fighter with a familial background in Sri Lankan politics that was not unfamiliar with thuggery and threat.
At the Adelaide Oval on 23rd January 1998, he did not hesitate to admonish umpire Emerson face-to-face – with his schoolmaster-finger confronting Emerson’s schoolmaster-finger. THAT PHOTO must surely take centre-stage again….. and again.
How unusual! How rare!
*******
END NOTES
- See ……..https://thuppahis.com/2024/08/25/breaking-new-ground-transcending-centuries-for-all-ceylonese-across-continents/#more-84300
- When Darrel Hair no-balled Muralitharan for throwing from a position at head umpire at the MCG on 26th December 1995 Ranatunga had left the field to consult the SL management. But in Adelaide he admonished the umpire in what was an unprecedented face-to-face confrontation.
- One of these invitees was the [late} English journalist Ted Corbet, whom I had got friendly with in the mid-1990s. As a result, one of his articles, entitled Ïn Appreciation of Bill Lawrie,” appears in my book Essaying Cricket, Vijitha Yapa Publishers, 2006, pp. 202-04.
- [1] I believe such actions would have meant the forfeiting of the match.
- ** When Murali was no-balled at the MCG on 26th December Owen Mottau in Melbourne was informed that early”morning that Mrualitharan would be “called for chucking (personal communication from Owen).
REFERENCES
Michael Roberts: “Moral Crusaders as Menace in Cricket,” in Roberts, Essaying Cricket, Colombo. Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2006, pp. 51-56.
Nirgunan Tiruchelvam: “Murali scales the Summit,” in Roberts, Essaying Cricket, Colombo. Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2006, pp. 212-45.
Bernard Whimpress: “Murali’s Chucking Episodes in Australia,” in Roberts, Essaying Cricket, Colombo. Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2006, pp. 305-13.
Peter Roebuck: “Secret Filming Reveals Extent of Bowlers Who ChucK,” in Roberts, Essaying Cricket, Colombo. Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2006, pp. 321-23.
