Muralitharan in narrow escape from tsunami

SYDNEY: Sri Lankan spinning great Muttiah Muralitharan declared himself “lucky to be alive” after narrowly missing one of the tsunamis that killed 11,000 people in his home country, The Sydney Morning Herald reported Tuesday. Muralitharan, who is recovering from shoulder surgery in Sri Lanka, told the newspaper he had spent the weekend in the southern coastal city of Galle handing out cricket bats to underprivileged children with his manager Kushil Gunasekera. Just minutes after Muralitharan drove out of the city, Galle was devastated by tidal waves triggered by a massive undersea earthquake thousands of kilometres away in Indonesia. “I missed the wave by 20 minutes,” Muralitharan was quoted as telling the newspaper. “I had only just left Galle, so I am very lucky to be alive,” he said. “The wave was over 20 feet (six metres) high and it went two kilometres inland (more than a mile). “A lot of our cricketers are from there and we don’t know how their families are. My manager barely survived. His house is gone,” he said. “Galle is totally under water and a lot of people are missing or dead. There are people everywhere screaming.” Muralitharan said it would be difficult for him to join his team mates ahead of the first Test against New Zealand in Hamilton, which had been scheduled for January 15, given the extent of devastation in his homeland. “Something like this has never happened to my country,” he said. “In my opinion, it is not the right time for cricket.” afp

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