Australia, Lanka to vie for Warne-Murali trophy

In a move to honour two of the greatest spinners of modern era, Sri Lanka and Australia are all set to fight for the Warne-Murali trophy when they lock horns in a two-Test cricket series starting next week.

On the lines of the Border-Gavaskar trophy featuring India and Australia, the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) mooted the idea to name Sri Lanka-Australia series after spin greats Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan and Cricket Australia's (CA) response to the proposal has been positive, said SLC secretary K Mathivanan.

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"We have decided to name the series as the Warne-Murali trophy," Mathivanan told PTI, adding moves were afoot to start with the forthcoming two-Test series which gets underway in Brisbane next week.

Apart from honouring the spin legends, naming the series after them is expected to ease tension between the two competitive teams and appease some section of the crowd that jeers Muralitharan in Australia.

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With 700 Test scalps under his belt, Muralitharan is now nine wickets shy of surpassing Warne (708) as the highest wicket taker in the longer version of the game, and the Lankan offie would be hoping to achieve the milestone at the leggie's home turf.

Apart from the Border-Gavaskar trophy, Australia competes with New Zealand for Chappell-Hadlee trophy in one-dayers.