ADELAIDE, Australia, Jan 23: THE vicious campaign that was launched by a certain section of the media from the time the Sri Lankans landed here to call world's number one off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing finally succeed when Ross Emerson, standing at square leg called the spinner in the fourth ball of his second over during the Carlton and United one-day series match against England here today.
Muralitharan bowled his first over from the scoreboard end where umpire Tony McQuillan was standing and got through without any hassle. In the fourth ball of his second over, umpire Emerson standing at square leg stretched out his hand horizontal and called 'NO' indicating that the delivery was illegal.
Pandemonium reigned for nearly 15 minutes with skipper Arjuna Ranatunga having a jaw with Emerson and moving pavilion wards with his team wanting to confer on what his next move should be.
Match referee Peter Van der Merve came on to the field and conferred with the two umpires, while the Sri Lankan officials had their mobiles working and got in touch with president of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka who wanted the Lankans to continue with the game.
Ross Emerson was one of the three umpires who called Muralitharan when they toured here previously. The others being Darrel Hair and Tony McQuillan. While Emerson called Muralitharan, he did not receive any support from his mate Tony McQuillan, who apparently did not see anything wrong with Muralitharan's action.
Muralitharan then bowled a leg spinner when he resumed. It must be recalled that the bowler was called when he even bowled a leg spinner. That was a big joke on the game.
Although the Sri Lankans resumed the game, the damage had been done and the Lankans were not the usual bubbly self they would have wanted to be. They were never really focussed on the field.
Ranatunga, the cool and tactical captain that he is, switched Muralitharan to bowl from Emerson's end wanted the umpire to stand up to the wicket and Muralitharan bowled his remaining overs without any problems. But it was obvious that the youngster was annoyed and dejected, and he was never the penetrative bowler that he is.
Emerson was apparently showing off his heroics once again. With Muralitharan having not made any adjustments to his action had Emerson not called him, he would have been the loser and the accused. So he had to justify his 'calling' of Muralitharan three seasons ago.
Ranjit Fernando, the Sri Lankan Manager, defended Muralitharan saying that instead of savouring the excellent bowling feats of Muralitharan, there are those who are trying to belittle the spinner, psyche him and destroy him.
Muralitharan got through the previous four games against some of the best umpires that Australia have to offer who saw nothing illegal in his bowling. What most Australians here cannot understand is why are the Aussie umpires hounding out Muralitharan when he has been passed by 40 other best umpires in the world, and cleared by the ICC.
But in Muralitharan's moment of grief, it was nice to see his teammates with their arms around him encouraging and standing by him. The Sri Lankans domiciled here shouted words of encouragement and urged the spinner on. It was only a few days ago that Allan Border, one of the best Australian captain's gave Muralitharan a vote of confidence by saying that he sees nothing wrong in his action.
The rest of the tour for the Sri Lankans will never be the same again. With their best bowler Muralitharan now under wraps, the Lankans will be only going through the motions.