So an era in Sri Lankan cricket finally comes to an end. Correction! An era in International test cricket finally comes to an end.

Muttiah Muralitharan. A name which sent a severe chill down the spine of the best batsmen around the globe finally calls it quits. He has been quite a name to reckon with throughout his august career. And just like Don Bradman, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara; his records are surely going to be beyond the reach of any player forever. It will take some effort to overhaul his record for sure.

800 Wickets, is by no chance a mean effort! And combine it with the fact that he has managed to, time and again, get those scalps with a gentle smile on his face, the sobriquet of “Smiling Assassin” seems very much befitting.

Bowling records seem to be Murali’s forte just the way Sachin manages to plunder bowlers around the world. He has been through the most unpleasant of experiences and has come out of it, time and again, with a huge smile writ large over his face. Being no-balled for chucking seven times during the course of an innings; being constantly rounded for a suspect action; hostility from the crowd Down Under; Murali has seen it all and has always come out of all this all guns blazing.

Moreover, such has been his charm and panache that despite giving a tough time to the batsmen out there in the middle, he is on talking terms with almost all of them. There have been quite a few life-lessons which we must try and imbibe from Muttiah Muralidaran. Like being able to take the criticism in your stride at all times, despite the odds being heavily stacked up against you; like being humble about the plethora of peaks that you have scaled throughout your career; like constantly reminding yourself that there is a lot more still to be achieved despite leaving your competition miles behind and many more!

Another charge that has been leveled on Murali is that he has been brought up on utter turners in the sub-continent unlike his closest competitor, Shane Keith Warne, who has had to toil to get his wickets on tracks essentially made for pacers. But Murali seems to have silenced his critics by managing to send the batsman back to the pavilion on a mind-boggling 678 occasions in away games across all formats of game!

However, his detractors still remain. To doubters, he is the one who is responsible for the move by ICC to legitimize chucking! But whatever the case may be, it had be rather cynical and stupid of you to keep Murali out of the equation at any stage in a match. For, the only way he tells people to shut up and mind their own business is by deceiving the best with his wily off-spin. Surely there will be a huge void left behind in Sri Lanka’s bowling attack and it had be quite an achievement for Sri Lankan Cricket to find someone even minutely close to the art and mastery that Muralitharan possesses.

Test purists are surely going to miss this legend in the coming few years.  He finally attains that magical figure of 800 and in the process make sure that nobody messes around with indelible impact he has left on the beautiful game.

WE FROM THE22YARD BID ADIEU TO THE SMILING ASSASSIN!!!