Muttiah Muralitharan to retire from IPL after 2014 edition

Muttiah Muralitharan

One of the most celebrated Sri Lankan spinner, Muttiah Muralitharan is set to retire from the Indian Premier League at the end of the ongoing season.

“Probably, this is my last IPL season. I decided to play these T20 leagues (IPL, Big Bash and the Caribbean T20 league) because I had nothing to do after I retired. I was getting bored,” he said.

The right-arm off-break bowler has been with the Royal Challengers Bangalore since 2012. He has also played 133 Tests, 350 ODIs and 12 T20s for Sri Lanka (1992 to 2011).

The legendary Sri Lankan is of the belief that a bowler cannot be judged based on his T20 performance.

“You cannot say someone is a great bowler after an impressive spell in one game and at the same time you should not run him down if he concedes runs. If you want to assess a spinner, you need to see his performance in ODIs and Test matches.” he said.

The 42-year-old supported Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh to make a comeback into the Indian team this year.

“It is not like Harbhajan has done anything wrong. R. Ashwin has done very well in the last two years along with Ravindra Jadeja. It is very rare that two off-spinners are picked in the XI and thus Harbhajan will have to wait for his chances,” he said.

“We have had ups and downs but at the same time our batters have delivered in crunch situations. Yuvraj is peaking and there is still a long way to go. Hopefully, he will deliver in important games like playoffs and help us win the final this year,” he added.