Murali targets wickets milestone

Sir Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan is relishing the chance to break the Test wickets record in front of his hometown fans in Kandy.

The 35-year-old, who was born in Kandy, is currently four wickets short of Shane Warne's record of 708.

The series with England starts in the central Sri Lankan town on Saturday.

"It would be a special moment to do it at my home place because I grew up here and played all my cricket here in my younger days," Muralitharan said.

"It would be nice to get the five wickets here but it depends on how I bowl and the way they bat."

The Sir Lankan admitted that when he was starting out he had no idea he would one day be on the verge of becoming the leading Test wicket taker of all time.

"I didn't even think about it. When I started playing cricket at the age of eight or nine it was just the enjoyment of playing cricket," he said.

"When I first played, against Australia, I thought if I played one Test I would be happy.

"Once I had played one Test I thought I could carry on going a little bit more.

"Rather than thinking of the end result I just played and the wickets came."

Predictions of how many wickets Muralitharan will end his career with have gone as high as 1,000 but the Sri Lankan played down talk of reaching four figures.

"It's difficult to say because if I want to get 1,000 I have to play for another four or five years and I'm 35 now, so realistically it's not possible," he insisted.

"But you never know because if something goes well and the next three years are fabulous - like last year when I took 96 wickets - if I can do that for another three years it could happen."

Source: BBC Sport