How Herath Made His Dart Into the Test Record Books

Derek Pringle pays tribute to a left-arm spinner who has belied his looks to become the best ever in his discipline.

- Derek Pringle

Cricket might lend itself more to producing world-beaters of unusual mien than other sports but Rangana Herath stretches even that particular envelope.

Short, distinctly tubby, with grey tints now frosting his hair, Sri Lanka’s record beaking spinner looks like he was modelled on nothing more predatory than a cuddly teddy bear.

Looks can deceive in cricket, as in life, and Herath has, at the age of 39, just become the greatest wicket-taker among left-arm spinners in Test cricket with 366 victims.

Given that he has recently assumed the captaincy and with an action that is streamlined even in its economy, he could go on to set a figure for the slow left-armer that will not be broken in his lifetime – not bad for a man who spent the first 11 years of his career listing in the shadow cast by Muttiah Muralitharan’s all-consuming brilliance.

Herath broke the record in style, too, taking 6-59 to defeat Bangladesh at Galle, the most fecund of the spinner’s many hunting grounds throughout his 18-year career.

The left-arm spinner usurped was Daniel Vettori, another unprepossessing cricket great, at least to look at.

Vettori, a dead ringer for Harry Potter’s geekier elder brother, is the same age as Herath but has worse knees, hence his retirement from international cricket for New Zealand.

Yet, fabulous left-arm spinner that he was, Vettori took 113 Tests to take his 362 wickets, a tally Herath has overtaken in just 79 matches.

There are reasons for this and not just the very different ways the pair go about their bowling, though that is worth discussing.