Murali setting stellar example

The only thing for Sri Lankans to cheer on Thursday night during the fourth one-dayer, another game where we were comprehensively outplayed, was the world record for Murali.

Being the team player that he is, he was disappointed he passed Wasim Akram's 502-wicket record on a day we lost, but he should be a very proud man.

Murali is to Sri Lanka what Sachin Tendulkar is to India. Like Sachin, he now sits on top of both the Test and ODI pile.

Like Sachin, he'll leave records when he finally retires - hopefully not for a while yet - that could last for generations to come.

Like Sachin, he is a national hero but also one of the nicest, most humble and down to earth people you'll meet.

I have been fortunate to share a dressing room with Murali throughout my career and he has been an inspiration to me. You would not believe just how hard he works on his game.

He might have over 1,000 international wickets to his name, but there is still no one who practises harder. He'll do spot bowling for hours and hours.

In Ajantha Mendis we have unearthed another exciting spin bowler and he could have no better role model to learn from than Murali.

What has been amazing about Murali's 18-year career is the way he has evolved.

As batsmen have adopted new techniques, he's developed new strategies, experimenting with new deliveries and employing different angles of attack.

In this regard, Ajantha will need to do the same. Fortunately, like Murali, Ajantha is also a hardworker and very disciplined.

He will also evolve and get better and better. Media talk that India have worked him out is far too premature.

Yes, they have played our spinners well, both Murali and Ajantha, but the situation might have been very different if we'd been bowling second.

The history of Premadasa is that the pitch gets slower and takes turn in the evening.

We have seen that with the Indian slow bowlers, with even the part-timers extracting spin and being difficult to score freely off.

I've no doubt that Ajantha and Murali would have loved to have bowled in those conditions with runs on the board.

Unfortunately, though, Mahela can't win the toss! Having said that, it would be very wrong to make the toss an excuse.

India have thus far outplayed us in pretty much every department.

Even our fielding, normally such a strong part of our game, has become far too ragged at times.

Our standards are well below our own expectations, but credit to India, they have played some high-class one-day cricket and fully deserve their No 2 ranking.

- Gameplan