Wary of crowd trouble, Lankan officials to meet CA

Fearing a hostile reception for off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan at the Australian grounds, Sri Lankan team officials will meet Cricket Australia (CA) to take stock of the arrangements.

Fearing a hostile reception for off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan at the Australian grounds, Sri Lankan team officials will meet on Friday Cricket Australia (CA) to take stock of the arrangements being made for crowd management.

HT Image

Muralitharan, who returned to play Test cricket in Australia after 13 years yesterday, is just nine shy of overtaking Shane Warne (708) as the highest wicket-taker in the longer version of the game.

The off-spinner had been subjected to taunts of "chucker" by spectators on his previous visits here and the hostile crowd is likely to have a go at him once again when Sri Lanka play a two-Test series next month.

Sri Lanka coach Trevor Bayliss said though the matter would be up for discussion in a meeting tomorrow but Muralitharan remains unaffected by it.

"There is a meeting on Friday with Cricket Australia, and I'm sure it will all come up then. The Australian crowds will probably try to put him off his game, but he has heard all that before. I'm sure it will all come up at the meeting. We aren't too concerned," Bayliss was quoted as saying by the 'Age'.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene said his team would not resort to any "silly" extremes while dealing with Australia's on-field aggression.