Kumar Sangakkara shares incredible anecdote about the legendary Muttiah Muralitharan and his efforts to master accuracy

Former Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara has seen the greatness of spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan unfold from close quarters during the time they both were a part of the national team.

Underlining the importance of practice and consistency, Sangakkara recalled when the coach stopped Muralitharan from bowling for long hours in the nets. The answer given by the former legendary spinner is something Sangakkara still remembers with great respect.

Speaking on Sky Sports Cricket's Ashes Podcast, here's what Kumar Sangakkara had to say about that incident involving Muttiah Muralitharan:

"When I first started, I used to watch Murali bowl for 1-2 hours in the nets and the coach would just go and grab the ball off him and ask him, 'Why are you bowling so much? Save some for the match.'

"He used to say, 'I don't care what number of wickets I take or how much variation or turn I get. But I want to make sure that when I run in even with my eyes closed, I am able to pitch the ball exactly where I want it to. If I don't have that, then the rest doesn't matter.' The amount of work he had to put in for his accuracy was immense."

Kumar Sangakkara further talked about how tough it was for Muralitharan to sometimes carry the bowling attack on his own. On this, he said:

"Mentally, going through what he did, being called for his action, injuries along the way, not having huge amount of support from the other end until Rangana Herath came in at the backend of his career.

"He used to throw up in the bathroom before games. He used to have an upset stomach that's how excited he was to play the games."

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Kumar Sangakkara on how Muttiah Muralitharan completed 800 Test wickets

Kumar Sangakkara was the Sri Lankan skipper when Muttiah Muralitharan played his final Test match for the country. He still needed eight more wickets to reach the magical figure of 800 Test scalps, but Muralitharan had made it clear to the management that he would give his all in his final game and not play for the milestone.

Speaking about Muralitharan's selfless mindset, Sangakkara stated:

"I was the captain and I told him, 'You need 8 wickets and we want you to get 8 wickets. So if you play and you don't get them, it's okay you can take a break and then come back and let us know when you want to come back and finish it off.'

"He looked at us and said, 'No. It's fine. I have challenged myself to get the 8 wickets in this one game. It's not about 800 wickets. If I get those 8 wickets, we win. That's more important. If I don't get 8 wickets so be it.' That was the measure of the man."

Muralitharan still sits on top of the pile in the list of highest Test wicket-takers of all time and that record doesn't seem to be getting broken anytime soon.