Bipin Dani
World’s most successful bowler and the highest Test wicket taker Muthiah Muralitharan has safely arrived in Sri Lanka. This was confirmed by his Indian wife, Madhi.
Speaking exclusively over the telephone from Colombo on Friday morning, she said, “yes, Murali arrived safely on Thursday and has been quarantined in a hotel for seven days.
Murali has been a mentor for the Sunrisers Hyderabad team in the IPL. His team’s last match was in Delhi. “He came from Delhi, via Chennai”.
The 49-year-old Murali had an angiography and underwent angioplasty in Chennai last month. He could not visit the doctor again in Chennai but will consult the doctor in Sri Lanka, it is learnt.
Along with Muralitharan, his IPL team director Tom Moody has also arrived in Sri Lanka, we have confirmed the same with him. “Both were in the same flight”, the top Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) official also said.
Moody is SLC’s new cricket director and was invited to attend the selection committee meeting (from India) over telephone when the team for the home series against Bangladesh was selected.
Murali and Moody are likely to have arrived just before the ban for the flights coming from India was imposed on Thursday, according to Upul Dharmadasa, the chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka.
“This ban will last at least for a few weeks and will only be revoked when the covid cases go down”, Dharmadasa, speaking from Colombo, on Friday said.
