Murali turns 36; CSK boys celebrate

Chandigarh, April 18: Muttiah Muralitharan turned 36 yesterday and his Chennai Super Kings team-mates celebrated the occasion in style, chorusing “Happy Birthday To You”, leaving the Sri Lankan off-spinner rather overwhelmed.

The World’s highest Test wicket taker was presented with two cakes that were promptly named “Off-Break” and “Doosra” in reference to Muralitharan’s craft and variation.

“We had lots of fun asking Murali to sing the birthday song in Sinhalese. Of course, he didn’t but the occasion helped to bond the players,” said V B Chandrasekar, the team’s director of cricketing operations.

It was a fairly exclusive party that was attended by the entire team with the exception of skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni who is in Bangalore to attend the inauguration of the Indian Premier League later today.

Dhoni is expected to arrive in Chandigarh late Friday night, according to Chandrasekar.

The birthday party was held at the end of a long training session that ran to over four hours at the PCA Stadium in Moahli, the venue of Chennai Super Kings’ opening game against Kings XI, Punjab, on Saturday evening.

Recalling an interesting incident during the day, Chandrasekar said along with Muralitharan, he visited the PCA pavilion where photographs of top cricketers are displayed. They came across a photo of Muralitharan taken in 1993. “It was amazing to note that there has been little change in Murali. He looks just the same even now!” said Chandrasekar, adding that Muralitharan was absolutely delighted when told.

In fact, age has sat well on Muralitharan and he retains a boundless enthusiasm for the game despite 16 seasons of topflight cricket.