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Things could certainly improve for Muttiah Muralitharan, the Sri Lankan off-spinner. Following his country's dismal efforts to hang on to the World Cup, he had to sit around and twiddle his thumbs at a saturated Bristol yesterday when the first day of Lancashire's championship match against Gloucestershire was washed out by overnight rain. Welcome to county cricket, Murali.

But Sri Lanka's early exit from the 'Carnival of Cricket' is very much to the benefit of Lancashire, who have signed the 27-year-old as their overseas player on a one-year contract, in preference to Wasim Akram, last season's captain. Great deeds are expected of the Kandy man, who returned 16 for 220, the fifth best bowling analysis in Test cricket, when Sri Lanka conquered England at the Oval last August - a match in which he took his 200th wicket in only his 42nd Test.

The talents of this affable Tamil, who was born with a deformity in his right elbow joint, are unique. Together with an ability to manoeuvre his wrist almost as if it were made of rubber, his capacity to spin and dip the ball is prodigious.

But controversy has never been far away since he was no-balled for throwing by Darrell Hair in the Melbourne Test of 1995-96. Murali's action was later cleared by the International Cricket Council, only for another Australian umpire, Ross Emerson, to reopen old wounds last winter by calling him against England in a World Series match.

``The weather is certainly most disappointing,'' Muralitharan said yesterday, as he became acquainted with his new team-mates. ``And I'm so disappointed about the World Cup. But it can't be helped. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. It is difficult to say where it went wrong because, altogether, we did not play well.''

He is greatly looking forward to his season with Lancashire, and he is probably relishing the fact that it should afford him some time out of the spotlight.

``It's a first season for me playing county cricket and I just want to enjoy it. I haven't set myself any targets, but I simply want to take as many wickets as possible for Lancashire.''

English pitches are hardly a spinner's delight, but that does not seem to bother Murali. As well as his ability to spin and dip the ball, he can elicit surprising bounce, in addition to a top-spinner and a quicker ball.

``I have the ability to turn the ball and I think I will do well,'' he said with absolute modesty. In fact, he may do well enough to help bring a first outright championship to Lancashire since 1934.