"My autobiography 'Retired Hurt' deals entirely with my cricketing life and not on Glen McGrath calling Sanath Jayasuriya a black monkey, during the 1996 tour of Australia," said former Sri Lankan opener Roshan Mahanama, who is planning an exciting launch to his autobiography in Dubai.

"The incident has been mentioned in one line in the 230 page book. It was taken out of context and blown out of proportion. The incident should have been read along with the other comments in the book and McGrath made the comment in the heat of the moment," he added.

A leading English daily, just before the release of the book in Australia last month, wrote about the McGrath-Jayasuriya incident leading to threats of legal action and hints on an injunction against the release of the book.

"Through the book I am not making an allegation or a specific complaint against McGrath nor do I want any action against him now. We did make an official complaint then and let it pass. I have narrated this incident along with a series of ugly incidents which took place during the 1996 tour, such as the accusation of ball tampering and Muralitharan being accused of chucking. McGrath's comment was part of my objective analysis, highlighting the various factors which motivated and brought out the killer instinct in us to beat the Aussies and bring the World Cup to Sri Lanka."

Mahanama, who is now in Colombo, is keen to officially launch the book in Dubai where he has a big fan following.

To a query as to why he named the book "Retired Hurt", he said: ""Retired Hurt" was coined by my father. It was selected out of over 15 suggested titles. It was most appropriate as it represents the way in which a batsman can terminate his innings. I had retired prematurely, as a direct consequence of the selectors' decision to drop me from both Test and One-day squads, despite being the second highest scorer and four runs less than the leader in the last World Cup. I thought it was appropriate to place my cricket life story on record, along with my experiences. The only other Test cricketer from Sri Lanka who has done so is Aravinda De Silva."

Explaining in detail on the biased attitude of the selectors, he makes a reference to India's Vinoo Mankad. "I have batted from number one to nine for valid and not so valid reasons. The only other cricketer to have batted in all positions is Mankad. My career was affected by this and finally led to my decision to retire from the game, I passionately loved."

When asked whether there was a mention about incidents in Sharjah in the book, Mahanama said: "There are many references to cricket in Sharjah. The most important was the challenge I had to face when I captained the Sri Lankan team in 1994 for the triangular, after our skipper Arjuna Ranatunga and five others rebelled against the board's decision to drop Aravinda De Silva from the squad based on physical fitness. It was during this tour that Asanka Gurusinghe made a fabulous 98 for Sri Lanka, following which his house in Sri Lanka was stoned by some people."

On why the book was released from Australia, Mahanama said: "David Cruse, the promoter and Ken Pieese, the person who assisted me in writing the book, are both from Melbourne. The launch was held at Knox Tavern Hotel in the presence of nearly 250 people. In Sydney, it was held at Hotel Millennium. The release was a great success with nearly 350 of the 500 limited, hard cover collector's copies being snapped up quickly."