Warne vs Murali: Re-spinning the GOAT debate

Two players – different as chalk and cheese when it came to their bowling styles and on-field conduct – but as convergent as it could be when it came to unleashing their bowling arsenal. Wickets tumbled as these two rumbled, as did the previously built records. GOAT, now a signifier commonly associated with tennis and the likes of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, became a topic of such serious debate that even now clarity remains obscured about who was the greatest amongst these two legendary spinners: Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan.

Both made their debut at about the same time; a few months were all that separated the start of the journey of their legacy which, incidentally, still continues to be as secure as ever before. Not much then separates them in the manner in which the two went on about building it, either.

Where Warne accumulated 708 Test wickets in 145 matches spanning over a 15-year old career (1992-2007), the Sri Lankan edged out the Aussie by extending his career three more years (1992-2010), finishing off with stats that were not just impressive at 800 Test wickets in 133 matches, but also seemed a bit solitary at the peak of the statistics table. Thus, it becomes all the more difficult to pinpoint who was the greatest after all.

Greatest – a more perplexing connotation doesn’t exist in the English dictionary than this term. A superlative, technically it’s supposed to be a stand-alone but is rarely used as such in the context of sports. Warne and Murali are then – to quote it proverbially – merely the tip of this iceberg. The terminology of greatness or greatest therefore becomes a misnomer; more subjective to people and their objects of interests rather than a more objective and pinpointed analyses. And the lesser-interesting persona thus tends to lose sway in the discussion even though by all accounts he could be the more stronger candidate in contention. There again, one can’t objectively determine who’s the stronger player to qualify as the ‘Greatest of Them All’, on account of the the whole point becomes moot.

In the event that there does exist some semblance of objectivity and rationality in the whole endeavour, there is always a tendency to veer to the more lesser-important aspects about the sportsman in consideration. Case in point: Warne and Murali. While the more objective fan would focus on their on-field achievements rather than their conduct off the field, a more Murali-oriented perspective would invariably cast the Lankan as the superior amongst the two spinners thanks to his otherwise well-behaved behaviour during his professional life. Warne’s infamous life away from the field would then be a stronger detractor even though facts and figures may say volumes about the cricketer.

The trials and tribulations that the Aussie went through to reclaim all the respect that he may have lost thanks to his infamy become secondary, rather than a facet of utmost significance. If Warne hadn’t been as determined to get things back on track as far cricket was concerned, the world wouldn’t have paid him any attention. The love, respect and awe that his name generates and inspires wouldn’t have existed and he would have ended up being as one of those superfluous cricketers who make a fleeting round of the sport but fail to sustain and brace themselves in its whirlpool of continuity.

There again, Shane Warne wouldn’t have been the cricketer as the world proclaims him to be if not for the Sri Lankan who matched him toe-to-toe not just taking their rivalry to unexplored heights but also propelling the sport towards glowing days that will never have any comparison even if a player, at some future date, were to overtake these two giants. The contrast and difference in their playing styles appears far too spell-binding then. Indeed, the world can only gape in marvel at Warne’s ‘Ball of the Century’ as it was called along with being completely befuddled when Murali tweaked his wrists and shoulders to pick wickets like they were tenpins at a bowling alley.

There are then no comparatives or superlatives when these wonders came parallel to each other, no adjectives or exhaustive words to describe, discuss or even debate whether one rated more than the other. Statistics and figures may be true after all, tangible facts that can never be disputed, but between Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan, there can never be crowned a single, undisputed greatest. For to choose one over the other would not only be doing a great disservice not just to them, but hugely detrimental to the sport as well.