http://ashes.sportinglife.com/crick...TORY_NAME=cricket/06/12/21/manual_081248.html
who's the greatest?
Muralitharan - likely to overtake Warne's haul.
By Rory Dollard, PA Sport
In any other era, the achievement of becoming the first bowler in Test history to take 700 Test wickets might be enough for Shane Warne to confidently request a fitting for the crown of greatest spinner of all time.
But despite being only one wicket from this monumental feat, Warne knows that the true owner of finest slow bowler of the modern era is a vexed question.
Because for every mesmerising performance from the Australian icon, there is an equally compelling display from Sri Lanka's own cricketing legend - Muttiah Muralitharan.
From the moment Warne bowled former England captain Mike Gatting with his fabled 'ball of the century' the cricketing world was firmly, and unbreakably, in the Victorian's thrall.
The year was 1993 and at that stage the notion that a Sri Lankan bowler may one day challenge Warne for his unofficial title would have been considered highly unlikely - it is a testament to the achievements of Muralitharan that he is now doing just that.
Their standing in the game is such that Warne and Murali are the only two players in Test history to have claimed more than 600 wickets, with Warne's team-mate Glenn McGrath the highest ranking seamer on 555.
As such there is a largely unspoken race between the two to finish with the most career wickets and set a record that many believe will never be broken.
And although Warne's current pre-eminence sees him leading Muralitharan by an admirable margin, it is now doubtful that he will finish ahead of his rival having announced his retirement at the end of the current Ashes series.
At 34 Murali is around two-and-a-half years younger than Warne - meaning that he should easily outlast the leg-spinner in the international arena.
Naturally comparing the towering achievements of two such giants can be a unenviable task and the conclusion, undoubtedly, is that each player has had a profound effect on cricket as we now know it.
But both men can make tangible claims on the rank of first among equals.
In Warne's favour is that, aside from his own personal tally, he has contributed regularly and heavily to the successes of one of the finest cricket sides ever produced.
Although led by distinguished, era-defining captains like Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and current leader Ricky Ponting, the Baggy Greens generation that will go down in legend alongside the once-dominant West Indies of the 70s and 80s is as much Warne's Australia as anybody's.
World Cups, an almost endless run of victorious Ashes series and a near monopoly of first place in the world rankings have all come to the Antipodeans in the course of Warne's career and success is frequently the barometer by which one can reasonably judge sportsmen.
To that end, he is second to none. Not even Murali.
But delve a little deeper and the Sri Lankan finger-spinner again presses a convincing case.
Firstly, Warne has played a full 33 more matches than Murali - more than enough time to establish a deceptive lead in the wickets-taken category. Given time to play catch-up Muralitharan might even make his way to the once-imponderable 800 mark. In terms of successes, few would rank higher than that.
Warne has bowled in excess of 600 more overs in his Test career. That is a significant deficit for Murali, who boasts a strike-rate of a wicket every 55 balls.
While Warne enjoys a similarly regular success-rate (one every 57 balls), it is the Sri Lankan who has enjoyed a greater volume of big hauls.
He has now claimed five wickets in an innings on 56 occasions and in addition he has recorded a 10-wicket match on 18 occasions, including a staggering sequence of four such matches in succession (against India, Bangladesh and twice against the West Indies in 2001/2).
It is also worthwhile to note the vastly different environments in which the two men have been playing.
While much of Warne's career has been spent in an Australian side as dominant as there has ever been in world cricket, Muralitharan's Sri Lanka, despite their remarkable rise in Test cricket, have spent large amounts of that time - especially away from the sub-continent - on the back foot.
Where Warne has long enjoyed the luxury of his side's prolific batsmen establishing a huge advantage to play with, Murali has often been handed the task of saving the match with little or no margin for error. In many instances he has done just that.
But the perception of Muralitharan as a one-man attack also works in his favour. Where he is frequently given carte-blanche to bowl without rest - thereby increasing his chances of taking more Test scalps - Warne has had to share the burden of wicket-taking with luminaries such as McGrath, Craig McDermott, Merv Hughes and Brett Lee.
On many occasions, the Australian seam department has been in such rude health that there are just a handful of wickets left when the spin is called upon.
Had Warne, the man who saved from extinction the art of leg-spin, been born into another era, he would surely have become indisputably the greatest slow bowler of his generation.
But the shadow of Muralitharan, whose achievements in redefining what is possible with finger-spin at least match Warne's, means it is an honour he cannot take for granted as he prepares to bow out next year.
Honestly, get a life, and get rid of the sweeping generilisations, i'm sure i'm not the only Australian who's found them offensive because your basing us as a whole upon the actions of a select few gits whom we all agree need to go and take a hike.
