VINCE CALIGUIRI/Sydney Morning Herald

SHUT IT SHANE: The relationship between Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne has turned sour with the Sri Lankan branding the Australian a "miserable man" and vowed not to talk to him over comments about his bowling action.

An irate Muttiah Muralitharan has branded Shane Warne a "miserable man" and vowed not to talk to him at the unveiling of the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy in Hobart today.
Muralitharan is furious over Warne's recent call for the Sri Lankan's controversial bowling action to be re-tested. Warne believes the International Cricket Council should devise a method to test the elbow flexion of bowlers during matches, as opposed to the current practice of laboratory testing.
Muralitharan last year consented to voluntary testing of his action at the University of Western Australia, and was found to bowl with an elbow flexion of 14.4 degrees, just within the ICC's legal limit. Critics, though, believe laboratory tests fail to simulate match conditions, prompting Warne's comments.
Muralitharan is convinced he is being unjustly persecuted by Warne, whom he suspects is merely upset that his test wicket-taking record is about to be eclipsed. The Sri Lankan requires just seven more wickets to pass Warne's mark of 708, and could do so in his last test appearance on Australian soil, beginning at Bellerive Oval tomorrow.
"I am very disappointed with what he said," Muralitharan told the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday.
"He can't keep his mouth shut because he wants to keep making these comments. He must be a miserable man in his life. But that is his opinion and there is nothing I can do about it.
"Maybe he just doesn't want me to pass his record. Why else would he keep saying these things? I will shake his hand [at the ceremony to unveil the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy] and go straight off the field instead of trying to be friendly."
Muralitharan was also critical of Terry Jenner, Warne's long-time mentor, who also called for the spinner's action to be tested in match conditions.
"Terry Jenner played cricket a long time ago and cricket is very different now," he said. "So it doesn't matter what he says. But Jenner and Warne are still always commenting, commenting, commenting ... it makes them feel important."
Feelings between Warne and Muralitharan have often been tense, but the Sri Lankan's latest riposte is likely to sink relations to an all-time low.
In a recent interview with the SMH, Muralitharan revealed that, while grateful for Warne's charity work in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami, the spinners were not on good terms. Muralitharan has grown tired of what he believes to be Warne's constant insinuations that many of the Sri Lankan's test wickets are cheap, because they came against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
Indeed, 163 of Muralitharan's 702 test wickets have come against the two test minnows, however the veteran spinner argues that he has no control over the Sri Lankan team's schedule. He has also pledged to continue playing test cricket until he has claimed 1000 wickets which, to his mind, would end the argument.
Muralitharan was loath to predict whether he would seize Warne's record in Hobart, perhaps his final confrontation with the Australians in the test arena.
"We'll see how it goes," he said. "I will just be trying my best to win the match."
When asked whether he now regretted consenting to the use of his name alongside Warne's for the new Test trophy, Muralitharan was non-committal.
"That was the decision between the boards of Sri Lanka and Australia," he said. "I cannot say anything else."
On a positive note, Muralitharan said he had been generally pleased with the reception he had received from Australian crowds this series, notwithstanding the occasional "no ball" and "chucker" taunt which has followed him since the Boxing Day Test of 1995.
Muralitharan said he had been spared the personal and profanity-laced abuse he had encountered on previous tours.
"There were some people so far who said the same old things, but that does not matter to me," he said. "There has not been a problem. Things have been good."