With Muttiah Muralitharan apparently retired from Test cricket, it seems appropriate to reflect on the recent era of spin dominance which may be passing with the Sri Lankan wizard's departure.
If you look at the list of the top Test wicket-takers in history, Muralitharan, Shane Warne and Anil Kumble comprise the top three, with 800, 708 and 619, respectively. They all began their international careers at roughly the same time, becoming stars at a time of growing interest in cricket. The number of matches increased significantly, be it five-day, one-day or Twenty20, and so it was always likely that records would be broken and, boy, have they been broken!
Following the days of Lance Gibbs, the West Indian spinner from the '60s and '70s, pace bowlers reigned supreme. Lillee, Botham, Hadlee, Kapil Dev and Courtney Walsh each held the position as top Test wicket-takers until Murali usurped that position in 2004. He and Warne continued to swap positions for the next few years, the Aussie becoming the first to 600 wickets then Murali winning the race to 700. Maybe Shane was spurred on by the friendly rivalry but his shoulder trouble and desire to have a life outside cricket eventually won out and he retired in 2007 after an Ashes Test at the SCG. Flintoff was his final victim, fittingly stumped by Adam Gilchrist.
Meanwhile, Muralitharan kept on going until the victory over India at Galle last July. And then there is Anil Kumble. While the other two were making all the headlines, the quietly effective and affable Indian leg-spinner was amassing more than 600 wickets in 132 matches, only one fewer than Muralitharan played. That's pretty amazing yet he didn't even rate the best player in his side. After all, like the goalscorers in football, it's the batsmen who get the most adulation, and when India had players of the calibre of Tendulkar, Dravid and Sehwag, it was hard for a spinner to get much of a look-in. However, at least he had managed to skipper his side in the twilight of his career and it was a shame that he was almost forced to retire. When that happened at the end of 2008 after a drawn game against the Aussies, I think India and the rest of the world came to realise what a great servant he had been to international cricket. Not a figure of controversy as Warne (deliberately) and Murali (through no fault of his own, apart from his physiology) had often been, Kumble deserves his place amongst the top three spinners.
Of these great exponents of the slow bowlers' art, Murali has easily the best average of the three in all forms of cricket although he has been fortunate to play more Tests against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh than the others, taking 175 wickets against the minnows of Test cricket. Kumble's average is barely under 30 although he finally achieved what Warne tried to do, and Murali would never dream of: scoring a Test century!
So what about the legacy of these three great bowlers? Will those youngsters inspired by seeing Murali, Warne and Kumble come through to earn their places in future Test sides? Of course, they can still see the former superstars in action, continuing to be amongst the best in the challenging cauldrons of the IPL and other one-day competitions. A good spinner can be far more effective than a fast bowler in T20 so young 'leggies' in particular may get the chance in the short formats.
Nevertheless, even in the unlikely event of him adding no more scalps, Murali will retire from Tests with twice as many wickets as his nearest challenger still playing - Harbhajan Singh - which says a lot about the former's amazing consistency and also unchallenged position as Sri Lanka's top spinner. It also says much about Harbhajan's temperament and position as Kumble's number two in the past decade. Nevertheless, he is only just 30 years old and may well proceed to at least 500 wickets in Tests and 400 in ODIs, although his averages are even more moderate than Kumble's. Daniel Vettori, too, is only about fifty behind him and only a year older.
Oh, and I haven't mentioned Pakistan yet. It's not as if they haven't produced world-class spinners in recent years. Mushtaq Ahmed, Saqlain Mushtaq and now Danish Kaneria are all brilliant bowlers but competition, injuries and politics have played their part in restricting appearances for the national side. Saqlain is credited with inventin the 'doosra' and was one of the finest one-day bowlers of his era, but hasn't played a Test in six years, when he was only 27. A frequent match-winner with Surrey, he never replicated the consistency for Pakistan. Mushtaq was another phenomenal performer in county cricket yet played only 52 Tests and 144 ODIs, claiming 185 and 161 wickets, respectively. It's now almost ten years since a teenage Danish Kaneria made his Test debut against England, bowling alongside Saqlain, yet he has completed only 61 Tests for Pakistan. His mediocre average of 34 may help to explain why, and with the side rebuilding after the summer's controversies, he may have played his last. Graeme Swann is the new king of the slow bowler's art, although as a late starter to Test cricket would need ten years of miraculous performances to get near the top wicket-takers.
Nevertheless, we may not see the contemporary rivalry of three great spinners for decades to come, so the exploits of Murali, Warne and Kumble should be remembered and appreciated by us all.
