Egg affair upsets Sri Lanka

Muttiah Muralitharan was among the group targeted

Sri Lanka have called for security measures to be stepped up after Muttiah Muralitharan and the team management had an egg thrown at them in Hobart this week.

The incident occurred on Thursday evening while the group were walking from a restaurant to the team hotel. The egg hit the back of one of the selectors.

K Madivanan, secretary of the Sri Lanka Cricket interim committee, said: "It is a disgraceful act by whoever did it as Muralitharan is a sporting ambassador and a good human being.

"He is here as a great cricketer to represent his country and this act is condemned by everybody.

"However, we still want to believe that Muralitharan was not the target.

"Having said that, we know that Cricket Australia has done their best so far and we have requested them to beef up the security even further to avoid such shameful acts in the future."

Muralitharan, the world's leading Test wicket-taker, has often been heckled in Australia since his action was no-balled over a decade ago. The spinner refused to tour in 2004 but took part in last year’s series.

Sri Lanka are currently in Australia for the triangular one-day series also involving India. They begin their participation against India in Sydney on Tuesday.