'This means a lot to me and Sri Lanka'

Muttiah Muralitharan dedicated his world record-breaking performance to his parents, and added that the most influential person in his career was his former captain, Arjuna Ranatunga.

"They have done a lot for me during my ups and downs of my career. From a young age they have encouraged me and helped me out financially and otherwise," said Muralitharan after breaking Courtney Walsh's world Test record of 519 wickets here today.

"The world record means a lot to me and for Sri Lanka. We are a small country, unlike Australia or Indi,a and performances like this help to give the country a good image over the world," he said. "It will also encourage a lot of youngsters to take to the game and one day perform at this level. They will want to be like me or some of the other cricketers, to become world champions for the country."

However, Muralitharan rated winning the World Cup as the biggest achievement of his career. "The World Cup was something different. You can't forget that it. It was tremendous. It is bigger than my individual performance today."

When Mahela Jayawardene held the catch at silly point off Mluleki Nkala to give Murali the world record, it brought to an end to his anxious wait. "I was thankful it was over," he revealed. "I said to myself it's gone now I can relax. Then off the next ball I got a wicket. Sometimes pressure situations may frustrate you. I was so anxious to get that wicket that I wasn't putting the ball in the right place. My team-mates said to put the ball in the right place and it will come. Eventually it came in the eighth over.

"It was wonderful to get the world record. I was a bit nervous when I was on 519 wickets because wickets were falling. I have to thank [Chaminda] Vaas and Marvan [Atapattu] for helping me get to the record. Vaas was bowling brilliantly at one end and had he continued the game would have been over. But he told the captain to stop him and give me the bowling to get to that one wicket. It was all a team game."

He rated the 16 for 221 he took against England at The Oval in 1998 as his best performance out of the 521 wickets, and said that Ranatunga was the most influential person in his career: "Arjuna guided me throughout my career for a eight-year period till 1999. He stood by me when I was in trouble with my bowling action twice, which got him into trouble. He is the most meaningful person in my career. Others have also helped me, but Ranatunga deserves a special place.

"I want to thank all the players who were with me in the team today. They did a tremendous job. I also want to thank the Cricket Board officials past and present, captains Aravinda de Silva, who was my first captain, Arjuna, Sanath [Jayasuriya], Hashan [Tillakaratne] and Marvan."

He continued, "Dav Whatmore did a great job, Bruce Yardley, other coaches like Duleep Mendis and Roy Dias, my school coach Sunil Fernando, physio Alex Kountouri, Dr David Young, Daryl Foster ... the list is endless."

Of all the batsmen in the world against whom he had bowled, Muralitharan said that Stephen Fleming and Andy Flower played him well, but singled out Brian Lara "as the batsman most difficult to bowl to". He said that India's Sachin Tendulkar was "a great player", but added: "I haven't bowled to him in a Test for the last five to six years."

Muralitharan concluded that it was his destiny to break the world record in Zimbabwe, even though there were not many spectators to witness the historic occasion. "Zimbabwe have played the best available team they could have put out. These wickets means a lot to me."