Hobart/Colombo, February 2
Even as the rumblings over the racism row involving Harbhajan Singh have hardly died down, a fresh controversy broke out in Australia with unruly fans attacking Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan with egg.

Showing no let up in their hostility towards Muralitharan, a group of fans threw an egg on the Sri Lankan spin wizard's face in Hobart last night.

“An egg was thrown at Muralitharan and it struck him”, a top Sri Lankan Cricket (SLC) official told PTI in Colombo adding, the authorities were looking into the incident.

The incident, which marks a new low in Aussie fans turbulent relations with Muralitharan, has prompted cricket authorities in Sri Lanka to ask for heightened security for the players.

“We have drawn the attention of Cricket Australia to this incident yesterday. They have already given the team security.

“But we have asked the authorities whether this can be beefed up further,” SLC secretary K Mathivanan said.

The ‘Island Newspaper’ reported that the Sri Lankan cricketers were jeered and attacked by some local residents in Hobart when they were returning to their hotel after dinner last night.

“The Sri Lankan team management had then taken action to safely guide the players back to their hotel and the police arrived at the scene,” the Newspaper said.

Muralitharan, who holds the world record with 723 Test wickets, has had a history of hostility with the Australian spectators, who have jeered him on previous tours, forcing him to stop going Down Under for some time.

The off-spinner was no-balled by Aussie umpires and the bowler had to undergo laboratory tests to prove the legality of his bowling action.

Former SLC chief Thilanga Sumathipala lambasted the ICC and said with an Australian (Malcolm Speed) as its CEO, the governing body had turned a blind eye even though Asian players continue to be harassed Down Under.

“We have to see the bigger picture. For some reasons, you always have an Australian as the CEO there. Every time an Asian player is treated like this, there is no step from the ICC. We need to get rid of that and only then we can move forward,” said a furious Sumathipala.

He, however, hoped that the incident would leave the Sri Lankan team a close-knit unit.

“As of now, Arjuna (Ranatunga) is heading the board and it should be dealt at the board-to-board level. I just hope the players stand together, get stronger and be united. And I think they would do well after this incident,” he said.

This is a fresh jolt for Australia’s already tattered image, with its team coming under attack for their unsporting behaviour and a racism row that marred their just-concluded Test series against India.

Muralitharan’s stormy relationship with Australian cricket stems back to Sri Lanka’s 1995-96 tour of Down Under when controversial umpire Darrell Hair no-balled him. The then captain Arjuna Ranatunga had threatened to take his team off the field as a mark of protest.

Constantly jeered by the hostile crowd and branded a ‘chucker’ by the then Australian Prime Minister John Howard, a hurt Muralitharan boycotted the tour of Australia in 2004.

After Hair, fellow Australian umpire Ross Emerson also called Muralitharan during a ODI series there.

Murali subsequently underwent a bio-mechanical analysis of his action at the University of Western Australia in Perth and cleared his name.

That, however, had little effect on the Australian crowd, which got even more hostile as the Sri Lankan looked set to overtake Shane Warne’s world record of 708 Test wickets at the leggie’s home turf. — PTI