Record holder Muralitharan honoured at Lord's

Date released: 3 December 2007

Muralitharan's portrait will hang at Lord's On the day he became the world record holder for Test wickets, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) has unveiled a new portrait of Muttiah Muralitharan, one of the legends of the game.

The oil-on-canvas painting is 6ft tall by 3½ feet wide, making it one of the larger exhibits to hang at Lord’s, and has been painted by Phil Hale.

MCC's Lord's Portrait Project

Phil, an American now living in London, is one of a group of accomplished artists chosen for their remarkable ability to capture the character and likeness of such internationally acclaimed cricketers for the MCC’s Lord’s Portrait Project.

A modern-day West Indies legend, Brian Lara The aim of the Lord’s Portrait Project is to commission a group of up to ten prize-winning artists to paint a series of portraits over a period of three years beginning in the summer of 2005.

They are all in their late twenties to late thirties, living in London and between them have, on a number of occasions, won the prestigious BP Portrait Competition at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Sir Viv Richard's portrait These portraits will be of varying size, in different media and should total around 20 works in all.

Already unveiled are works featuring two more legends of the game: Sir Vivian Richards and Brian Lara.

Portraits of the two West Indies batsmen both now hang amongst the many great artworks at Lord’s.

Record-holder

Warne with artist Fanny Rush 'Murali' snared the wicket of England's Paul Collingwood on day three of the first Test in Kandy, Sri Lanka.

Collingwood became the spinner's 709th Test victim - so Muralitharan takes the record outright.

He takes the record from another spin legend, Australia's Shane Warne, of whom a portrait also hangs at Lord's.