Warne–Muralidaran Trophy
The Warne-Muralidaran Trophy
Countries Australia
 Sri Lanka
AdministratorCricket Australia
Sri Lanka Cricket
FormatTest cricket
First edition2007–08 (Australia)
Latest edition2022 (Sri Lanka)
Next edition2025 (Sri Lanka)
Tournament formatTest Series
Number of teams2
Current trophy holder Australia
Most successful Australia (4 titles)
Most runsAustralia Michael Hussey (994)
Most wicketsSri Lanka Rangana Herath (56)[1]

The Warne–Muralidaran Trophy is awarded to the winner of the Australia–Sri Lanka Test cricket series from 2007–08 season onwards. The trophy is named after the two leading wicket takers in Test cricket, Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan (who prefers to romanise his name as "Muralidaran"[2]) and Australia's Shane Warne.[3] The trophy celebrates the 25th anniversary of Australia–Sri Lanka Test cricket.[4] The trophy features casts of the two bowlers' right hands and match-used cricket balls bowled by them during their careers.[5] Sri Lanka Cricket, the governing body of cricket in Sri Lanka had written to its Australian counterpart, Cricket Australia, that the winner of the series should be awarded a trophy named after the two bowlers.[6] Cricket Australia had responded positively to the Sri Lankans' proposal. In unveiling the trophy, Cricket Australia said in a statement,

...The two greatest bowlers in world cricket history have lent their names to a perpetual prize that will be played for in the Test series between Australia and Sri Lanka.[4]

The Warne–Muralidaran trophy became the latest addition to the series of trophies named after former players such as the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, for Test series between Australia and India and the Chappell–Hadlee Trophy which is contested between Australia and New Zealand in ODI format.[7]

History

Background

Before the Warne–Muralidaran Trophy, (1983–2004), Australia and Sri Lanka had played each other 18 times in the 21-year period, there had been four tours each in each country. Out of the 18 tests, Australia had won 11 times while Sri Lanka had won only once, in 1999, and 6 Tests had been drawn.[8] The following were all regular, not Warne-Muralidaran Tests between the two countries:

Season Host Tests Australia Sri Lanka Drawn Result
1982–83  Sri Lanka
1
1
0
0
 Australia
1987–88  Australia
1
1
0
0
 Australia
1989–90  Australia
2
1
0
1
 Australia
1992  Sri Lanka
3
1
0
2
 Australia
1995–96  Australia
3
3
0
0
 Australia
1999  Sri Lanka
3
0
1
2
 Sri Lanka
2003–04  Sri Lanka
3
3
0
0
 Australia
2004  Australia
2
1
0
1
 Australia

Inaugural series

Shane Warne retired from cricket in 2007 with 708 wickets against his name and Muttiah Muralitharan played the 2007–2008 series eight wickets short of Warne's tally at the start of the series.[9] Ricky Ponting stated that he was determined to deny Murali from getting the nine wickets required to surpass Warne as the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket while in Australia.[10] At the end of the series Muralitharan had bagged only four wickets. Australia won the test series and the trophy 2–0.[11] In the second Test, Kumar Sangakkara was given out when the ball actually hit his shoulder on 192 by umpire Rudi Koertzen.[12] After the match Koertzen apologised to Sangakkara. During the series Marvan Atapattu, former Sri Lankan cricket captain criticised the selecting board of Sri Lanka Cricket saying the selectors were a group of "Muppets headed by a joker" referring to the chairman of selectors, Ashantha de Mel.[10] Atapattu retired from cricket at the end of the series.

2011 series

On the second day of the first Test, Nathan Lyon took his first wicket in tests with his first ball, his victim was Kumar Sangakkara; he is the 14th international player and 2nd Australian to do so. He finished with figures of 5/34, becoming the 131st player to take five wickets on debut in a Test match.[13] Also, Trent Copeland took his first wicket in tests with his second ball; his victim was Tillakaratne Dilshan. Also in the first test, the ICC admitted that the hawk-eye or eagle-eye made an error.

On the first day of the third Test Shaminda Eranga got his first wicket in Tests with his first ball (repeating Nathan Lyon's feat in the first Test); his victim was Shane Watson. Also on the first day Shaun Marsh achieved an average of 209, the highest ever by an Australian. Michael Hussey was Man of the Match for all three test matches and was also awarded Man of the Series.

2012–13 series

Australia completed a clean sweep of the series, winning 3–0.

2016 series

Sri Lanka had a poor run leading up to this series, where they lost across all forms in England. The first match at Pallekele was a memorable one for Kusal Mendis who scored his maiden test century (176) and bowling of Rangana Herath lead Sri Lanka to a 106-run victory, their first test victory over the visitors in 17 years. The win boosted the confidence of the home team leading to the second test in Galle. Performances by Herath and Dilruwan Perera sealed the series with a 229-run victory. The spin duo took 18 wickets out of the possible 20 in the game. The third test was at SSC, Dinesh Chandimal and Dhananjaya de Silva scored centuries in the first innings. In reply, Shaun Marsh and Steven Smith score centuries for the visitors. In the third and crucial innings, Kaushal Silva scored a century giving setting a target of over 300 for the Aussies. On the final day the Australians started to crumble, only David Warner scored a half-century and no other batsman scored more than 30. Herath took 13 wickets in the match and Sri Lanka managed to win by 163 runs, whitewashing Australia for the first time in their history. Herath won both Man of the match award and Player of the Series awards. With this win, Sri Lanka moved above South Africa in the Test rankings, and Australia lost the top spot in the rankings.

2018–19 series

Australia completed a clean sweep of the series, winning 2–0.

List of Warne–Muralitharan Trophy series

  Australia won
  Retained by Australia
  Sri Lanka won
  Retained by Sri Lanka
Series Season Played in First match Tests
played (sched)		 Tests won
by Australia		 Tests won
by Sri Lanka		 Tests
drawn		 Player of the Series Series
result		 Holder at
series end
1 2007–08 Australia 8 November 2007 2 2 0 0 Australia Brett Lee Australia Australia
2 2011 Sri Lanka 31 August 2011 3 1 0 2 Australia Michael Hussey Australia Australia
3 2012–13 Australia 14 December 2012 3 3 0 0 Australia Michael Clarke Australia Australia
4 2016 Sri Lanka 26 July 2016 3 0 3 0 Sri Lanka Rangana Herath Sri Lanka Sri Lanka
5 2018–19 Australia 24 January 2019 2 2 0 0 Australia Pat Cummins Australia Australia
6 2022 Sri Lanka 29 June 2022 2 1 1 0 Sri Lanka Dinesh Chandimal Drawn Australia
Australian Test wins (as of July 2022)Sri Lankan Test wins (as of July 2022)Draws
942

Timeline

See also

References

  1. ↑ Statistics / Statsguru / HMRKB Herath / Test matches, retrieved 17 October 2016
  2. ↑ Blake, Martin (8 November 2007). "Under Murali's deadly spell". The Age. Retrieved 4 February 2010.
  3. ↑ "Warne-Muralidaran Trophy unveiled". ABC News. 15 November 2007. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
  4. 1 2 "Warne-Murali trophy goes on the line". ABC News. 3 November 2007. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
  5. ↑ "New Warne-Muralidaran Test trophy announced". cricket.com.au. Cricket Australia. 19 September 2008. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
  6. ↑ "Sri Lanka want Aussies to fight for Warne-Murali Trophy". ABC News. 31 October 2007. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
  7. ↑ Cricinfo staff (3 November 2007). "Teams will battle for Warne-Muralitharan Trophy". Cricinfo. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
  8. ↑ "Sri Lanka vs Australia in tests". Cricinfo. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  9. ↑ "Warne-Murali trophy is unveiled". BBC Sport. 3 November 2007. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
  10. 1 2 Coward, Mike (2007). "Australia v Sri Lanka 2007–08". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. Cricinfo. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
  11. ↑ "Australia wraps up series win against Sri Lanka". cricketnews.com.au. Cricket News. 20 November 2007. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
  12. ↑ English, Peter (20 November 2007). "Koertzen says sorry to Sangakkara". Cricinfo. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
  13. ↑ "Bowling records". ESPNcricinfo. 1 September 2011. Retrieved 1 September 2011.
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