Brisbane, Feb 4: Sri Lankan spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan, in his first public reaction to the egg-throwing incident in Hobart, today said he was expecting such a greeting from the hostile Australian fans.

Muralitharan, who on Saturday was thrown eggs by a fan in Hobart, said it was not a strange thing to to happen in Australia, considering how hostile the spectators have been towards him in the past.

"When you come to Australia, you expect such incidents," said the spinner.

Murali has a history of crowd trouble in Australia, being jeered with the chants of 'no-ball' most of the time he has bowled. In the past, he has been reported twice for chucking in Australia and he once vowed never to tour this part of the world again.

But even as Murali made a half-sneering reaction to the incident, his captain Mahela Jayawardene was typically statesmanlike and laughed off the episode.

"We had a good laugh about it. A few in our team wanted Murali to have egg on his pace. Murali, if it was possible, would have picked up a stone and thrown back (at the car). He later said there was a traffic light in front and luckily for those in the car, the light was green," said Jayawardene, amid raucous laughter at the press conference.

Jayawardene believed that crowd in Australia is as tough as the national team and it stems from their desire to win in all contests.

"Crowd in Australia are aggressive, like their team, and it's because they also want to win every single cricket game.

"Murali has faced worse things than an egg thrown at him. We reported it because we had to but we did not think much of the incident. It's important that things are kept in check and not everything is brought out to notice."

Jayawardane lauds Indian seamers

Brisbane, Feb 4: Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardane on Monday lauded the young Indian seamers for their stupendous success against Australia in the Test series but warned that Ishant Sharma and co might find the going tough once the batsmen get used to them.

"I would be able to comment on the Indian side after four or five matches. Ishant Sharma, for example, looks interesting. But once the international batsmen know about you, how you move on that is important," stated Jayawardene at a press conference here Monday.

Jayawardene said the Indian pacers supported their strike bowler and skipper Anil Kumble well.

The Lankan skipper was hopeful that Murali would do well in the ongoing one-day series even though he, unlike Kumble, was not too successful in the Test series in Australia last year.

"It was because their medium-pacers bowled better than we did. We did not bowl well and our batting was not up to the scratch. It hampered Murali, besides the fact that they had four left-handers in their line-up," he pointed out.

Jayawardene said he was not looking at the finals as of now and was approaching the series match by match as both the Australians and Indians were formidable opponents.