Bob Willis explains why Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan must be remembered as one of Test cricket's 'greats'.
Bob applauds career of an innovator, entertainer and match-winner
No praise is too high for Muttiah Muralitharan, a spinner for whom the adjective 'great' is entirely just.
His retirement from Test cricket next month will leave a huge hole in Sri Lankan and world cricket, although I can think of one or two batsmen who will be mightily relieved!
Murali has provided fantastic entertainment throughout his long career, as well as incredible innovation and penetration with the ball.
For years he and seamer Chaminda Vaas carried Sri Lanka's bowling attack on their shoulders, playing a crucial role in establishing their country on the Test circuit.
Although he's had to put up with a lot through his career, he's always played the game with a smile on his face and got on with the vast majority of his opponents.
Unfortunately, there will always be a cloud over his action in some people's minds but over the years the ICC has relaxed the rules over the degree of bend in a bowler's arm and Murali's action is nothing other than legal.
Indeed, when his action was broken down and analysed it became clear that a lot of the kink that appeared visible to the naked eye was in fact the product of an incredibly supple wrist.
For many years now, Murali has been at the forefront of both Test and one-day cricket and has stayed there because he's discovered variations and been prepared to experiment with them in the middle.
His success should not only be judged in terms of wickets - 792 in Tests at the last count - but also in the legacy his innovation leaves behind.
Character
How England and Australia - or any international team for that matter - would love to have their own Muralitharan in their ranks right now.
I watched the climax to the NatWest Series Down Under, where Australian fans were very pleased to see their side fight back in some style.
At 3-0 down there was a fair amount of gnashing of teeth but the tourists showed plenty of character to bounce back and, by the end of the series, clearly felt they had the measure of England whetting the appetite for the Ashes to come this winter in the process.
Whether Shaun Tait can be harnessed back into Test cricket remains a big talking point and with good reason.
Swinging the ball at 95mph-plus is a great skill rather than an exact science - we've seen plenty of examples over the years of how getting it a centimetre wrong at the bowler's end can result in the ball going five yards wide at the batsman's.
But when someone like Tait does get it right he is virtually unplayable; combating a full-length ball at extreme pace with late swing is the most difficult ball to handle.
Batsmen had to deal with some very difficult short balls in the 1970s and 1980s but I don't think a technique has yet been introduced to combat a 100mph late-swinging cricket ball.
Crisis
I spent some time on my trip with Jack Clarke, the chairman of Cricket Australia, who not only stressed how special the Ashes are to the Australians but also how significant the series is financially - they make nearly 90 percent of their revenue from playing England and India, apparently.
Cricket Australia are also looking beyond the Ashes to future one-day series because they've had some poor attendances in 50-over cricket last year.
Their problems are systematic of the global crisis that currently confronts 50-over cricket. Nobody knows quite how to treat it once the 2011 World Cup is done and dusted.
Ricky Ponting is always making very positive noises about the 50-over game and attendances in the recent NatWest Series were terrific but looking long-term I expect that format to be shortened given the huge interest in Twenty20 cricket now.
Australia's 'Big Bash' domestic tournament was an impressive success last year and everyone is looking forward to that again.
Capable
Although England beat Australia 3-2 in the NatWest Series, there are clearly still aspects of the 50-over game that Andrew Strauss' side must work on in the upcoming series against Bangladesh.
It's also imperative that they learn to turn the screw when they've won a series rather than take their foot off the gas.
Bangladesh's recent international displays have been well-under-par even by their standards but they are capable of causing a surprise in a short one-day series, as they almost did in Dhaka earlier this year.
England will need to be at their best to win the series convincingly and that goes for all of the players.
James Tredwell did very little wrong in Bangladesh but it's hard to see him as anything other than a reserve player for Graeme Swann, who is currently rested.
That's not to say he isn't a capable cricketer but it would be a fairly big surprise if he was England's second spinner in Australia this winter.
But Swann bowling in tandem with an English-Muralitharan against the Aussies? Now there's a thought...
