Muttiah Muralitharan

Muralitharan's paternal grandfather, Periyasamy Sinasamy, came from South India to work in the tea plantations of central Sri Lanka in 1920.

Sinasamy later returned to the country of his birth with his daughters and settled in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India.

However, his sons, including Muralitharan's father Muttiah, remained in Sri Lanka.

When he was nine years old, Muralitharan was sent to St. Anthony's College, Kandy, a private school run by Benedictine monks.

He began his cricketing career as a medium pace bowler but on the advice of his school coach, Sunil Fernando, he took up off-spin when he was fourteen years old.

He soon impressed and went on to play for four years in the school First XI.

In those days he played as an all-rounder and batted in the middle order.

Deshabandu Muttiah Muralitharan (born 17 April 1972) is a Sri Lankan cricket coach, businessman and former professional cricketer.

Averaging over six wickets per Test match, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport.

He is the only bowler to take 800 Test wickets and more than 530 One Day International (ODI) wickets.

, he has taken more wickets in international cricket than any other bowler.

Muralitharan was born 17 April 1972 to a Hill Country Tamil Hindu family in Kandy, Sri Lanka, the eldest of the four sons to Sinnasamy Muttiah and Lakshmi.

Muralitharan's father, Sinnasamy Muttiah, runs a successful biscuit-making business.

In his final two seasons at St Anthony's College he took over one hundred wickets and in 1990–91 was named as the 'Bata Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year'.

After leaving school he joined Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club and was selected for the Sri Lanka A tour of England in 1991.

He played in five games but failed to capture a single wicket.

On his return to Sri Lanka he impressed against Allan Border's Australian team in a practice game and then went on to make his Test debut at R. Premadasa Stadium in the Second Test match of the series.

Muralitharan was a part of the Sri Lankan team that won the 1996 Cricket World Cup.

Muralitharan's international career was beset by controversy over his bowling action.

Due to an unusual hyperextension of his congenitally bent arm during delivery, his bowling action was called into question on a number of occasions by umpires and sections of the cricket community.

After biomechanical analysis under simulated playing conditions, Muralitharan's action was cleared by the International Cricket Council, first in 1996 and again in 1999.

Muralitharan held the number one spot in the International Cricket Council's player rankings for Test bowlers for a record period of 1,711 days spanning 214 Test matches.

Muralitharan was rated the greatest Test match bowler by Wisden's Cricketers' Almanack in 2002, and in 2017 was the first Sri Lankan cricketer to be inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

Muralitharan had previously held the record when he surpassed Courtney Walsh's 519 wickets in 2004, but he suffered a shoulder injury later that year and was overtaken by Warne.

When his grandfather died at the age of 104 in July 2004, Muralitharan returned home from Asia Cup to attend his funeral.

Periyasamy Sinasamy's first wish to see Muralitharan claiming the world record for the most Test wickets was realised (passing the record set by Courtney Walsh), but not his desire to live to see his grandson married.

Muralitharan's grandmother had died one month earlier at the age of 97.

Muralitharan's manager, Kushil Gunasekera, stated that "Murali's family is closely knit and united. They respect traditional values. The late grandfather enjoyed a great relationship with Murali."

Muralitharan married Madhimalar Ramamurthy, a Chennai native, on 21 March 2005.

Madhimalar is the daughter of the late Dr S. Ramamurthy of Malar Hospitals, and his wife Dr Nithya Ramamurthy.

Their first child, Naren, was born in January 2006.

Muttiah Muralitharan holds Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) and he does not need a visa for travelling to India.

According to his manager, Kushil Gunasekera, Muralitharan qualifies for this status because his family originates from India.

He became the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket when he overtook the previous record-holder Shane Warne on 3 December 2007.

Muralitharan took the wicket of Gautam Gambhir on 5 February 2009 in Colombo to surpass Wasim Akram's ODI record of 502 wickets.

He retired from Test cricket in 2010, registering his 800th and final wicket on 22 July 2010 from his final ball in his last Test match.

Muttiah announced on 3 April 2011 that he was retiring from all sport.

Even though his name was widely romanised as Muralitharan from the start of his career, he prefers the spelling Muralidaran.

The different spellings have arisen because the Tamil letter த can be pronounced as both 't' and 'd' depending on its place in a word.

He won the Ada Derana Sri Lankan of the Year award in 2017.