Turning against Murali in TN

It is sad that Muttiah Muralitharan, one of the greatest players to grace cricket, has been reduced to a mere pawn in a dispute over nationality and ethnicity. Tamil actor Vijay Sethupathi, who was to essay the lead role in a biopic on Muralitharan, has been bullied out of the project by Tamil parties that are sympathetic to the LTTE, the militant organisation that was crushed by the Sri Lankan army in 2009. Muralitharan, a Sri Lankan Tamil, inspires awe for the manner he overcame adversity through his career. Growing up in a country with a marked anti-Tamil sentiment during the civil war, or being blamed for an illegal bowling action caused by a deformity in his right arm, he handled it all with quiet determination. He ended up with 800 wickets in Test cricket, a world record. He’s known for his modesty, and his efforts to help those affected by the 2004 tsunami are well-documented.

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Muralitharan is a role model, and the fact that a movie on him seems profitable led a Mumbai production house to launch a biopic on him. But some Tamil political leaders are dead set against Muralitharan. The sight of a lion, the Sinhalese symbol, on Sethupathi’s shirt in the film’s trailer incensed them — they prefer the traditional Tamil totem of a tiger, the symbol of the Chola empire. They alleged that Muralitharan supported Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese regime when ‘Tamils were being killed by it’, citing his comment, made last year, that 2009 was the happiest year in his life. Muralitharan clarified that his happiness was caused by ‘the end of war’, and expressed relief that ‘in the last 10 years, there haven’t been any deaths on either side’.

The Sri Lankan army and leaders complicit in war crimes must be brought to justice — it’s tragic that they’ve gone scot-free. Muralitharan has said he considers ‘all ethnicities as one and the same’ — this essential humanist sentiment is lost on those determined to stoke fires of enmity for emotional or political reasons. Exactly 100 years ago, Muralitharan’s grandfather migrated to Sri Lanka — Muralitharan is Sri Lankan and must not be turned into a pawn in Tamil Nadu’s political contest.