Matters took an ugly turn in an ODI between England and Sri Lanka in 1999 that forced captain Arjuna Ranatunga to threaten to take his team off the field. What exactly transpired that irked Ranatunga so much that he was ready to lead his side away?
Background to the Ranatunga-Muralitharan-Emerson incident
Mutthiah Muralitharan was cementing his place as one of the most difficult bowlers to face when he joined his teammates on Sri Lanka’s tour of Australia in 1995.
By then he had taken nearly 80 Test wickets in 20 matches and was expected to play a big role in Sri Lanka’s attempts to compete against their strong hosts.
An innings defeat at the WACA in Perth meant that Sri Lanka was going into the Boxing Day Test at the MCG as heavy underdogs. And to add to their woes, Aussie umpire Darrell Hair would go on to call Muralitharan for chucking.
Seven no-balls were called by Hair, who later claimed he wouldn’t be doing his job if he didn’t call Muralitharan for his action.
On that same tour, Sri Lanka were also involved in an ODI tri-series against Australia and West Indies. Making his umpiring debut was another Aussie Ross Emerson who stood in the seventh game of that series between Sri Lanka and West Indies played on January 5.
Debutant Emerson called Muralitharan a few times in that game, even when he bowled leg-spin. That was a strange call given it’s not possible to throw a leggie but it forced Sri Lanka to drop Murali from the remaining games.
What did the ICC do following this controversy?
The Muralitharan looked like it could blow into something big. In a bid to turn the page, Muralitharan was forced to undergo a few biomechanical tests to prove the validity of his action.
In 1996, the ICC looked into a biomechanical analysis done by the University of Western Australia and at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology on Muralitharan’s bowling action and cleared him of any wrongdoing.
What the ICC announced, based on their findings, was that Murali’s action created the ‘optical illusion of throwing’.
In essence, Muralitharan would now be able to play cricket without the worry of being called for chucking.
Or so one thought anyway.
Murali on a roll
With Muralitatharan having been cleared by the ICC, he went from strength to strength as he looked to establish himself as the world’s premier bowler.
He returned to ODI cricket at the 1996 World Cup and while he had an underwhelming competition with just seven wickets to his name, it was enough to help Sri Lanka win that tournament.
Back to back seven-wicket hauls in home Tests against Zimbabwe were followed by a six-fer in Hamilton against New Zealand – a country where spinners usually struggle and where Sri Lanka had never won a Test series before.
22 wickets from the next three Tests against Pakistan and West Indies made everyone sit up and take notice again, but when he grabbed 16 wickets in two Tests in South Africa in 1998 one knew that here was a bowler who could win his team Tests on any kind of pitch.
This view was further reinforced in a one-off Test against England that was hosted at The Oval.
A seven-wicket haul in the first innings of that game for Murali helped Sri Lanka grab a 146-run lead but it was in the second innings that he shone even brighter.
Muralitharan took nine of the 10 English wickets to fall there, taking his match tally to 16/220 as Sri Lanka stunned their opponents by 10 wickets!
His seven-wicket haul in the Kandy Test of September 1999 was pivotal in helping Sri Lanka beat Australia in a home series.
The 1999 Sri Lanka tour of Australia
With 203 wickets to his name in Tests at an average of just over 26, Muralitharan took flight for another tour of Australia. It was his first trip to the country where he had been first called for chucking.
This time around there would be no Tests but Sri Lanka were going to be a part of the Carlton & United tri-series with the hosts Australia and England making up the other two teams.
The first four games they played went off without an incident but Sri Lanka won just one of those, beating Australia by three wickets in Hobart.
In their fifth game, played on January 23, 1999, in which Sri Lanka took on England in front of nearly 10k fans, things went awry again.
Ross Emerson, who hadn’t umpired in any of the Sri Lankan games so far, officiated in this one. And as early as in the 18th over of the encounter, Emerson called Muralitharan for chucking from the square-leg.
A visibly miffed Sri Lankan skipper Arjuna Ranatunga confronted Emerson, ostensibly talking about Muralitharan having been cleared by the ICC for his bowling action. Emerson was having none of it and following a heated argument, Ranatunga tried to take his team off the field.
Emerson threatened to award the game to England – something that would happen when another Asian team, Pakistan would protest against a ball-tampering allegation made by another Aussie ump Darrell Hair in 2006.
The match referee Peter van der Merwe got involved in the discussion which also consisted of Sri Lankan manager Ranjith Fernando. After correspondences with Sri Lankan Cricket Board, Ranatunga was convinced to continue playing and reluctantly, the team got back on the field.
This drama lasted a total of 14 minutes.
Interestingly, when play resumed, Muralitharan was brought on to bowl from the end where Emerson was standing at the bowler’s end. Ranatunga also got into another verbal argument with Emeron when he asked him to stand close to the stumps, a request the umpire refused.
It was said that Ranatunga had tried to get him to do that to make it more difficult for Emerson to call a no-ball for chucking.
It also forced Muralitharan to bowl leg-breaks to avoid being called. He finished with figures of 0/46 from his seven overs as England piled up 302/3 from their 50 overs.
Sri Lanka slumped to 8/2 and 68/3 at different stages of the game but never seemed to give up. Mahela Jayawardene caressed his way to a century as Sri Lanka won by a wicket and with two balls to spare.
As luck would have it, Muralitharan was at the crease when the winning runs were hit.
What happened later?
Sri Lanka were knocked out of the tournament with just three wins during the league stage. The bigger story, however, was that of Emerson.
Emerson did not officiate in an international game after the Australian cricket board stood him down from the series following reports that he had taken a leave of illness from his role as an investigating officer with the Western Australian Department of Fair Trading.
He went on to officiate in first-class and List A cricket till January 2000 before his career as an umpire ended.
Muralitharan was never called for chucking again and he would end with 800 Test match wickets.
Photo Credit: Rae Allen from Brisbane, Australia – IMGP0719 – muralitharan