President Rajapaksa lauds Murali's milestone

Colombo, July 16 (UNI) President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa is the latest in line to pay his tribute to Muttiah Muralitharan after the 35 year-old became only the second man in the history to reach the milestone of 700 Test wickets.

The President described off-spinner Muralitharan's milestone as ''a great achievement and a great honour to the country and to a nation which entered the Test arena only about 25 years ago.'' He presented Muralitharan with a memento for reaching 700 Test wickets at a special banquet to the Sri Lanka and Bangladesh cricket teams and the officials of the Kandy District Cricket Association at a function held at the President's House in Kandy on Saturday night, according to a report on the Official Government website of Sri Lanka.

Muralitharan is only eight wickets short of the world record set by Shane Warne and he will play the next Test against Australians at the Gabba in Brisbane this November.

Meanwhile, Murali will returns to Old Trafford this week to play for Lancashire. Even Lancashire's cricket manager Mike Watkinson decribed the spin magician's feat as 'fantastic'.

He said, ''But it's what you expect from him these days. He makes the selection of a team that takes on Bangladesh a lot easier, because you don't need four rip-roaring seamers. The front two take the shine off the ball, knock a couple over and then Murali comes to clean up. He is quite exceptional.'' UNI XC BJR SAM GC1725