Thursday, April 18, 2002 One day, medicine will have advanced enough for David Beckham's foot or Muttiah Muralitharan's shoulder to be healed within days, maybe minutes. But for now we are left with the aborted expectation that any injury to a major star brings. Without Beckham, England might still do well in the World Cup, although they might lack the genius to win it. Without Murali, you fear for Sri Lanka.

Amid the thrashing that his team endured on Wednesday in Sharjah, Sanath Jayasuriya will have one major regret. It will not be that his team performed so dismally. One-day cricket can sometimes be an embarrassment, especially in finals, an experience that Pakistan know all too well. But Jayasuriya will be pulling out what is left of his hair over his bowling changes in the first 15 overs of that game. In the face of an unrelenting assault, initiated by Shahid Afridi and continued by Imran Nazir and Yousuf Youhana, Jayasuriya needed someone to contain Pakistan. He must have thought of Murali but instead, in the 11th over, he turned to Kumara Dharmasena - Murali's fellow spinner but nowhere near his equal.

In that very over Murali raced in from mid-on, fell as he gathered the ball, and damaged the ligaments in his left shoulder. If Murali had been bowling - which he should have been - this injury would never have happened. Thus fate twisted cruelly for Murali, and Sri Lanka were shell-shocked for the rest of the day.

Initial reports suggested Murali would be out for three months, but that later came down to one. That would mean that he might miss the Lord's Test, but return for the second and third matches against England. That will offer Sri Lanka some comfort, for without Murali their chances against England look bleak.

England have to start favourites for Lord's in May, but the subsequent Tests, with drier weather and more helpful wickets, offered Murali the chance to steal the series for Sri Lanka. In his absence, you would back England to hang on. With Murali just back from injury, England might well hold out as well - but it will be close.

Still, Murali is nothing if not a fighter. That comes from thriving as a member of a minority community in the midst of a civil war. It also comes from overcoming a disability that could have prevented him playing the game he loves. Not to mention the humiliation that the scrutiny of his action has generated.

By the time the presentation ceremony was underway on Wednesday - and it was an early finish - Murali was back at the stadium collecting his award for the best bowling figures of the tournament, and he did it with a characteristic smile. England had better not count their chickens, and cricket fans should not be too despondent. If Murali has anything to do with it come the summer he will be spinning as fruitfully as Tony Blair's own king of the art, Alastair Campbell. But the final say rests with the Australian surgeon that Murali is so desperate to see. For a country that did much to shame him, Australia has been awfully good to Murali too.

Kamran Abbasi, born in Lahore, brought up in Rotherham, is assistant editor of the British Medical Journal. More Kamran Abbasi
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