Test cricket’s highest wicket-taker is a simple man with a ready smile and, even at 36, infectious enthusiasm. Thoroughly enjoying his stint with the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, he opened up to Deccan Herald during a freewheeling chat. Excerpts:

To be playing for the Super Kings must be special...

Playing for Chennai means a lot because Chennai is like a second home. My ancestors are from here and so is my wife. It is a sort of homecoming, I’ve got dual citizenship!

What’s the experience like, bowling to fellow Sri Lankans, considering you all know each other inside out?

They might be familiar with my bowling, but they still they have to play well. That’s the challenge ahead of them because they can make a mistake. There is competition and challenge. But we are very good friends, we enjoy our battles.

735 Test wickets and counting, it must be wonderful as a Sri Lankan to head the wicket-taking charts?

I am very proud of it. Ours is a small country. Not many people would have thought a Sri Lankan would be heading the bowling list and be ranked number one for a long time. Right now, the record doesn’t mean anything. It meant a lot when I actually broke the world record, but now it is just a number. It was brilliant that it happened in Kandy, in my home town, in front of my friends and family, at a ground where I have played a lot of cricket. I tried hard but couldn’t break the world record anywhere else; to have done it on home turf was awesome. You can call it destiny.

You made your Test debut in 1991, but it wasn’t until 1996 that you actually began to stack up the wickets...

For the first four years, I was in and out of the side. Playing some games, not playing some, it was not easy to perform at my best. I started performing consistently when I was in the team for a long time. Then experience came in; I knew how to read batsmen and bowl to them, so the wickets tumbled. After 2000, I also started to bowl the doosra. I saw Saqlain bowling it and I thought if he could do it, why couldn’t I? It took me two years to master it, and I had to do it on my own because it is hard for anyone else to teach me. I just got the idea by watching Saqlain.

Through times good and bad, how have you managed to keep that smile going?

You should enjoy the game. There will be pressure times and times when you are upset. You must keep your emotions in check, keep them to yourself — just enjoy yourself out there and face the challenge. Everyone practices hard and puts in a lot of effort. On the field, you win some and you lose some. Some days I bowl brilliantly, some days I will get smashed around. That’s the way it is going to be. If it is like Muralitharan is going to get wickets everyday, cricket will become boring. You have to have 60-70 percent success and 30 percent failure, because others must also succeed!

Talking of pressure times, where did you find the mental strength to cope with the repeated scrutiny of your action in the mid to late 90s? And the boos from the Australian crowds in particular?

More than anything else, I was born with it. I was in a hostel in Kandy for a long time, from six years of age till I was 18. I learnt a lot from that experience — how to be alone, independent and how to think for yourself. That helped me in my cricketing career. They questioned the credibility of my bowling. I was determined to prove myself, so I went through all the tests. I told them any way you want to test me, that’s fine with me. I said use technology to judge if I am doing the right thing or not. I had that confidence in myself. I just went through all the tests and came through strong. As for booing, that’s normal, no? Even if they boo you, just keep calm and cool, and make them smile. And they will just keep on booing, that’s it!

To be the bowling spearhead for the country for over a decade can’t be easy?

Believe me, it’s hard. There is pressure. Everytime the captain gives you the ball, he says do something, do something. It’s hard to be number one in the world for a long time. For most part of the last six years, I have been rated the number one Test bowler in the world. To keep that position is very difficult because you have to keep on performing and keep on putting yourself under pressure situations. Then I got used to it. Now, in the later stages of my career, I am just trying to enjoy myself and have fun rather than putting myself under pressure.

Contrary to conventional theory, aren’t you more comfortable bowling to right-handers than left-handers?

Right-handers are more attacking. The ball comes into you and you have to play it most of the time. Left-handers can leave the ball because it is going away from them. The new theory is different. In the 70s and 80s, batsmen used their feet. Now they don’t leave the crease much. If the batsman comes out, you have a chance to get him stumped or deceive him in flight. Now they just stay in the crease and play the reverse sweep, sweep, slog-sweep, whatever you call. It’s easier for the left-hander to play the off-spinner because the ball is going away compared to the right-hander, to whom it is coming in and who has to play every ball.

Have you at any stage felt any batsman has mastered you?

On their day, people got a  lots of runs against me, but no one has mastered me. People like Matthew Hayden, Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, even Gilly sometimes, Michael Hussey and Clarke — they have got on top of me many times but I have got on top of them many times as well. There is a balance between us.

But the best batting opponent I have seen in my life is Lara. In Sri Lanka in 2001, they were all crumbling, but he stood tall and played brilliantly. The Australians always had collective effort. A couple of 50s and 60s, one person will get 150. But Lara never had any support. No one else crossed 30, and he got 200! That’s the difference between other players and Lara. He is the one that has played me the best.

Have you had captaincy aspirations at all?

I would have made a bad captain! I am very competitive and I get excited sometimes, qualities that won’t make for a good captain. Knowing that, I never even thought of hinting at wanting the captaincy! It’s essential for the captain to stay cool and not put pressure on the players in the team, even if he is upset. If the captain shows he is upset, the bowlers get upset and commit more mistakes.

But if the captain is relaxed, the bowlers will draw confidence from that. Mahela is a lot like that, he doesn’t take pressure and he doesn’t put pressure. But Dhoni is cooler than any other captain because he takes it so easy.