OK to taunt Murali says MacGill

Australian leg-spinner Stuart MacGill believes there is nothing wrong with Australian crowds taunting Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan.

Muralitharan refused to tour Australia in 2004 after on previous Australian tours he received “no ball” taunts and Australian Prime Minister John Howard calling him a chucker.

MacGill commented to AFP saying “One thing that sportsmen need to get over is that the spectators owe them anything. I think sometimes we can be a little bit fragile. It (crowd taunting) is not personal. We are never going to see him again – it doesn’t really matter.”

Australian captain Ricky Ponting was confident that Murali would receive a good welcome from crowds however, similar to what he got during the Tsunami matches in 2005.

Ponting said “I think they will. I mean they’re not playing in (Warne’s home town) Melbourne. It’s lucky Melbourne are not involved. But in saying that, there’s a huge Sri Lankan population in Melbourne anyway so they would have been out there supporting Murali.”

Sri Lanka tour Australia for two Test matches in November, followed by playing in the Commonwealth Bank Series in January/Feburary.