17 years ago on this very day, i.e, on Boxing day of 2004, a fatal Tsunami hit Sri Lanka and cost the lives of over 38,000 people of the island nation. Now that over 2 decades have passed, Sri Lanka’s legendary spinner Muthiah Muralitharan has recalled his experience of the cursed day. He revealed that he himself would’ve been caught in the Tsunami but was fortunately saved by God’s grace.
Muttiah Muralitharan was on his way to a function with his family members that day. It was a charity function of the Kushil Gunasakera’s Foundation of Goodness (FoG). The spinner said that he was 30 minutes late to leave his house for the function but today he thanked god for making him late as that saved his life.
He could hear people say that ocean water has entered land. He thus took the necessary precaution, lay high and made him and his parents safe. He also mentioned the measures he took to contribute in helping others in distress due to the Tsunami. Countless numbers of lives were lost that day.
Speaking to Dailymail, Muralitharan said “On the way, I and my family were going near Kalutara — a place you can see the water in the river which goes to a lagoon. It was a brown color on a full moon day. We thought we should go ahead before the high tide comes. Halfway through the journey, there are people shouting away. I went out of the car and they said, “Seawater has come to the land, don’t go that side, the Galle area.
“We luckily turned back and raced back to Colombo. When we switched on the TV, we see the effect of what has happened. If I set off 20 minutes earlier, I would also have been caught in the waves.’ saw the WHO count saying 30,000 people were dead but it looked like 100,000 people who would have died as some villages were wiped away. The pain is difficult to explain because of the situation we went through.”
“I created awareness because of being a cricketer. I was an ambassador for the World Food Programme. Through them, I got food machines and gave them to places that were affected. And then my good friend Dr. David Young, a Melbourne orthopedic surgeon who was the Sri Lanka cricket team doctor, brought over a team of surgeons from Australia,” the spinner concluded.
“I could have died if i was 20 minutes late !”: Muralitharan recalls horrific experience of 2004 Tsunami
