Aussie PM labels Murali a chucker

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has bought into the debate over Muttiah Muralitharan’s controversial bowling action, labelling the Sri Lankan off-spinner a chucker.

Howard, a keen cricket fan, was asked at a lunchtime meeting of party faithful on the New South Wales south coast today if Murali threw the ball when he bowled and he replied: “Yes.”

“They proved it in Perth too, with that thing,” he added, drawing an image of a video screen with his hands. Muralitharan, the top Test wicket-taker of all time with 521 wickets, has a genetic defect which stops