Andrew Flintoff writes about an incident involving Muttiah Muralitharan.
In my early England days, there was a bit of tension with captain Nasser Hussain. On one occasion, I definitely pushed my luck.
I was great mates with Muttiah Muralitharan, dating back to the days when we both played together at Lancashire.
In an England versus Sri Lanka series, it panned out that I wasn’t bowling too much short stuff at him and he wasn’t bowling too many doosras at me. Which was a bit naughty, I can see that.
I’d had dinner with him the night before one match. Murali said, ‘Fred, I haven’t got any bats left. Can I borrow one of yours?’
We used the same bat sponsor at the time. It was a bit tricky because Nasser had put a ban on us even talking to Murali. We were supposed to be freezing him out.
Murali tried again on the morning of the match, asking for a word.
Nasser was glaring at me from a distance, clearly very unhappy. So I said to Murali as quickly as possible, ‘When we go out to field, go into the England dressing rooms. Just nip in the back door and take one of my bats – but keep the whole thing under your hat.’
Once the match was under way and we took a few Sri Lankan wickets, Nasser brought me on to bowl out the tail, as was the plan in those days.
Out strides Murali, carrying my bat.
Nasser, meanwhile, talks me through the plan. I want you to go at him. Short stuff.’
Hmm. Tricky one this, on lots of levels, especially given the status of bouncers and doosras for me and Murali.
‘Nasser, I think I can get a yorker through him, nice and full will do the job here.’
‘No, I just told you,’ he said. ‘I want you to go at him.’
No, I’m going to try and bowl him. Hit the stumps. Job done.’
So I ran in, trying to bowl a yorker, directly against instructions. Didn’t get through. In fact, it found the middle of the bat, my bat – good middle it had, too.
Nasser threw all his toys out of the pram. I was taken off. Then Murali started charging the other bowlers, smashing them.
After one huge six, Murali walks between me and Nasser at the change of ends. I can see Nasser has clocked my initials on the bat. He’s ready to explode.
Murali has a huge grin on his face: ‘F****** good bat, Freddie!’
Via Dailymail