Muttiah Muralitharan

Some Lesser Known Facts About Muttiah Muralitharan

• Does Muttiah Muralitharan smoke?: Not Known

• Does Muttiah Muralitharan drink alcohol?: Not Known

• His grandfather Periyasamy Sinasamy was shifted to Central Sri Lanka from South India in 1920.

• He used to play rugby in his school.

• At the age of 14, when he played for his school, he won the title ‘Bata schoolboy cricketer of the year’ in 1990/91 season.

• In 1991, when he was selected for the Sri Lanka-A tour of England, he left school to join the ‘Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic club.’

• In 12 T20s, he took 13 wickets at an average of 22.84.

• He took 1374 wickets (average- 19.64) in 232 first-class matches.

• In January 1998, while playing against England, he reached his career’s best test match figure 16/220.

• On 9 April 2002, he acquired 4th ranking in the LG ICC best ever ODI bowling ratings (913).

• He grabbed 53 wickets in 31 matches of world cup tournaments in 1996, 1999, 2003 and 2007.

• During his third test against Zimbabwe in Galle, he was the fastest bowler to take the 400 wickets.

• On 7 July 2010, he announced his retirement from the test cricket. In the same year, he proclaimed his retirement from the International cricket also.

• On 1 August 2015, President of Sri Lanka, Maithripala Sirisena appointed him as the Brand Ambassador for the ‘Presidential Task Force’ to combat kidney disease.

• He likes to eat crispy duck and milk chocolate.

• Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara are his best friends in the cricket world.

• He is the only cricketer of Indian origin, who represented Sri Lanka in international cricket and acquired the Overseas Citizenship of India.