Muralitharan joins Gloucestershire for Twenty20

Thursday, 10 February 2011 00:46 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

LONDON (Reuters) - Record-breaking Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan will play Twenty20 for Gloucestershire for the next two seasons, the English county club said on Wednesday.

The 38-year-old, who retired from test cricket in July after claiming a record 800 test wickets, will quit all forms of international cricket after this year’s World Cup.

He will join Gloucestershire for the domestic Twenty20 season after playing in the Indian Premier League.

“I am really looking forward to playing for Gloucestershire,” Muralitharan said on the club’s website (www.gloscricket.co.uk)

“It is a young exciting team and I hope I can add some experience to the mix.

“The last time I played at Bristol I took five wickets and I look forward to an exciting T20 competition with the Gladiators.”

Muralitharan helped Sri Lanka win the 1996 World Cup and took 519 wickets in 341 one-day internationals to become the leading wicket taker in both major formats of the sport.

His switch to Gloucestershire is not his first foray into the English game, however, after he had previous spells at Kent and Lancashire.

“This is an exciting and once in a lifetime opportunity to work and play with one of the greatest cricketers in the history of the game,” Gloucestershire director of cricket John Bracewell said. “Whenever I have watched and observed “Murali” he has always had and shown an infectious love for the game of cricket. This is something that I personally am looking forward to working with.”

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