Murali will miss the Lara challenge

Muttiah Muralitharan, who has spent the best part of a year sidelined by injury and controversies over his doosra, has admitted that he will miss the challenge of bowling to Brian Lara when Sri Lanka take on a weakened West Indian side in a Test series later this month. Lara, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chris Gayle are among those missing from the squad after last-minute parleys failed to solve the row over contracts between the board and players.

"Bowling to Brian is always a big challenge," said Muralitharan, who enjoyed some titanic tussles with Lara when West Indies toured in 2001. Lara smacked three centuries even as West Indies slumped to a 3-0 defeat, aggregating 688 runs and playing Murali with a finesse and aplomb rarely seen before.

"He batted extremely well against me when they were here last time, but dont forget we still completed a 3-0 sweep," said Murali, talking to AFP. He had finished that series with 24 wickets, and will look for a similar haul as he resumes his pursuit of Shane Warne and the world record for most Test wickets.

Murali refused to be drawn on the debate over whether Lara was superior to India's Sachin Tendulkar. "Brian batted well and scored a lot of runs against me in the last series here. When someone scores so many runs he has got to be very good," he said. "But I have not bowled to Sachin Tendulkar in the last seven or eight years in a Test match which is really disappointing."

Murali last played a Test against South Africa in August 2004, but has warmed up for his comeback with 36 wickets in six matches for Lancashire this season. "I have not played a Test for almost a year now and I am looking forward to the challenge," he said. "I did well for Lancashire, getting plenty of wickets in the county championship and one-day matches. They want me to come back again and play for more seasons, but we have to see how it goes."

The first Test against the Shivnarine Chanderpaul-led West Indies starts on July 13 at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo. A week later, Murali will look to give greater joy to his home crowd in Kandy.