Muttiah Muralitharan

Sri Lankan spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan will not have it easy in his last Test - against India at the Galle Cricket Ground starting July 13. According to curator and former Test spinner Jayananda Warnaweera, the track will be a flat one. Incidentally, Galle is Muralitharan's happy hunting ground - 103 wickets in 14 Tests.

"We are not preparing a wicket to suit the spinners. We have decided to prepare a batting track. However, Murali can be a successful bowler on any wicket. With many guests expected to witness our hero's final Test, we don't want the Test to end prematurely," said Warnaweera. It can be recalled that the Galle ground was destroyed by the tsunami in 2004. The Indian team will have happy memories of this ground where they beat the hosts by a massive 170-run margin two Julys ago when Virender Sehwag scored a double hundred.

The writer is a freelancer