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Sri Lanka's star spinner Muttiah Muralitharan is contemplating legal action against former Indian skipper Bishen Singh Bedi for making defamatory remarks against him.
Muralitharan, who recently surpassed West Indian paceman Courtney Walsh's tally of 519 Test wickets to become the world's highest wicket-taker, had consulted lawyers on taking action against Bedi for writing degrading articles questioning his bowling action.
The Sunday Times newspaper today quoted a lawyer retained by Muralitharan as saying that they were studying the remarks attributed to Bedi in recent times.
Muralitharan was recently reported for suspect action and a bio-mechanics team found that the spinner's 'doosra', a delivery that spins away from a right handed batsman, did not conform to the laws of the game.
Muralitharan had earlier twice been no-balled by Australian umpires Darell Hair and Ross Emerson in 1995 and in 1996-97 respectively and was later referred to an ICC experts panel which said his mysterious bowling action was due to congenital deformity in his right elbow.
Bedi, however, has maintained that the Sri Lankan should never be allowed to bowl. The Indian left arm spinner, who was a member of the famous spin quartet of the 1960-70s, was of the opinion that Muralitharan's action was basically faulty.