Putting up two stumps, Murali had a special bowling session with Fernando for more than half an hour as the champion off-spinner was fine-tuning his body for the third and final Test against Bangladesh that starts here today.

With Australian great Shane Warne's world record of 708 wickets well within his sights, the spin wizard still considers himself as a learner like a newcomer and doesn't think twice to go back to Fernando, who first spotted him as a medium-pacer before transforming him into an off-spinner, for suggestions.

"He talks to me whenever he feels that he needs some suggestions. He is a very hard working guy. What I felt is he needed to work on his foot movement to get more turn and force the batsmen to give edges. Today he just tried to put more weight on the front foot during the half an hour practice session," said the soft-spoken Fernando, who has been guiding the bowler since his childhood.

"Coach can't change a bowler like Murali, but he is always keen to learn," said the proud coach of a very special player of world cricket.

"My first teacher is here and he has been coaching me since I was only six. I still turn to him because I believe he is still better than anyone else," was the champion off-spinner's say about his yesterday's practice with his first guru.

The Kandy hero is just four wickets shy of claiming hundred wickets at this venue where he has played lot of games besides Test matches.

"Yeah, I have lot of good memories about this ground because I played a lot of Test matches here and some big school games. It would be nice to get hundred wickets here," he said.

Murali is also looking forward to breaking Warne's record but said that he was not a great follower of records.

"I am very satisfied. I am happy because I am still going on. Yes I am looking forward to the landmark, because I once broke (Courtney) Walsh's record and then Warne's and Warne then took it away from me. Now I have got the chance to take it back. No, I am not a great follower of records because if I can play until the next World Cup then my tally would be five to six hundred wickets in one-day cricket alone," he said, expressing his desire to play the next World Cup.

He was also not ready to compare him with any other spinner including Warne.

"I don't miss Warne because he played for different country and he was altogether a different bowler. I have seen him bowling for so many years and he was the best spinner. There are many other good spinners like Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Daniel Vettori and Mushtaq Ahmed. In fact, my era saw a lot of good spinners all around the world. I think so many spinners came through over the last two decades that they dominated the field," he explained.

"I thought something different and I tried it to get it off. I think one or two weapons are enough. You can bowl only two ways and perfectly," he said when asked about his doosra.

Murali bowled against all the great batsmen over the last two decades and among them he rated former West In dies captain Brian Lara as the best he bowled against.

"Lot of batsmen played me very well, but I believe only Lara was a standout. He has aggregated over six hundred runs in three Tests here alone and all those innings were amazing. Not many people play spin better than Lara did and that's why he was the number one batsman in the world," he explained.

Once it was only Murali and Chaminda Vaas who had to lead the bowling attack but now there are a number of quality bowlers who are also making big contributions.

"Now the other bowlers are coming through and we have some very good fast bowlers. Definitely I enjoy it and I like to share the work with others," he said.

Replying to a question if it would a burden for him to be considered as the symbol of national unity, Murali said that it would be a big satisfaction for him.

"I was born in Kandy and grew up with Muslims, Sinhalese, Tamils, Hindus and Christians. So it is not a problem for me. What I think is that cricket and politics are two different things," he replied.

The champion bowler, who took 64 wickets against Bangladesh, hardly found any improvement in Bangladesh's performance in the Test arena.

"I think they are improving, but they have a long way to go in Test cricket. In Test cricket the Tigers have not improved," he stated.