Guys, personally I prefer Murali over Warne for a variety of reasons. However an issue such as this should not be ignored. The ICC buried the issue, as they had no way out. The original intent of the law "straightening of the arm" was to prevent a bowler from throwing the ball as at that distance a good arm can make a blinding fast throw. However a throw involves a retractive action and is not governed by just the straightening of the elbow. A throw is possbile by flicking the wrist without much straigthening of the elbow. In my view the ICC found no way to define all these aspects and had to go for the 15 deg elbow as a compromise. That also gave support to the Doosra - a delivery the human arm is incapable of without throwing (the limitation comes from the way a shoulder can rotate and the need to deliver the Doosra with the palm facing the bowler). Also see wikipedia.While Murali may have been exonerated there was no real resolution for this issue of clean bowling action.

Can't believe people still talk about chucking. The laws were changes after scientific study which showed that 99% of all bowlers "chucked" in the old definition and the only time a straightening of the elbow became visible to the naked eye is when it was above 15 degrees. And he was much better than Warne, who had a battering ram of fast bowlers to make inroads before he came on to bowl, and also got so many wickets again England, the worst players of spin in the history of cricket possibly.

@ Naikan, your argument itself is contradicting. not only murali's, it was also found that many other so called greats in past and present (although i dont recall any spinners, i do recall mcgrath and lee, with all due respect for their greatness), about 99% of them bent at least at times more than the allowed angle. so how do you exactly know that past spinners didnt have the same advantage?.. murali's gift and curse at the same time was his congenitally deformed arm. it allowed him exceptional flexibility but gave wrong illusions. some might even say that murali in turn faced many tribulations and unbearable mental stress, he actually once thought of giving up cricket but survived through shear will and the help of his few but faithful supporters. being a sri lankan, i believe that warny was better as an impact player, who like KP, used his ego to mesmerizing effect. but in any comparing and contrasting, bringing 'chucking' into the table is unfair, ungainly and pointless.

@Naikan: I join with Alec to sympathize people like you who always speak about Murali's action due to the ignorance. I usually hate posting replies for baseless comments, but since this sort of comments do harm the wonderful achievements by Murali, I thought of replying. Murali never straighten his arm. You can see the following videos where he bowls with a firm, fixed brace which do not allow any flexion or extension his elbow, and still gets same amount of turn from doosra and regular off spin. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDxRhcpBZio http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIBIrwUHXOU

While I have high regard for Murali (and especially as a really likeable personality), I will always take his achievement with a pinch of salt. His bowling record, before he got the go ahead for his action, was an average of about 30. Whether his action is acceptable is not the question, but the fact that many good spinners before him never got that freedom to do the same, meant that we will never know if Murali's achievement is unique and whether his record is fair comparison to other spinners of the past. If he had managed even 500 wickets with the old law in place (elbow bending 7 deg instead of 15 deg - I think), I would have rated his achievement to be greater than what he managed eventually.