Muttiah Muralidharan, who needs nine wickets to surpass Shane Warne’s Test record, during a training session at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday. (AFP)

Melbourne: Muttiah Muralidharan may be just nine short of overtaking Shane Warne as Test cricket’s highest wicket-taker but Australian captain Ricky Ponting is confident that his boys can stop the Sri Lankan off-spinner from capturing the record in their backyard.

The task of taking nine wickets to surpass the record of Warne’s 708 does not seem too tough for the wily offie in next month’s two-Test series, but Ponting says he is determined not to let it happen in Australia.

“He needs nine to pass Warney’s world record and I want to make it pretty clear that it would be nice if he left Australia not getting those wickets,” Ponting was quoted as saying by a local daily.

“If that’s the case, then we’ve done a good job. He’s also made it clear over the years that he feels Australian batsmen play him better than any other team in the world. In saying that and in our conditions, hopefully we can keep him under wraps,” he added.

Ponting also played down apprehensions that there would be crowd trouble when Muralidharan plays his first Test on Australian soil after 12 years.

The Aussie skipper said he was confident that spectators would behave themselves even if Muralidharan overtakes local hero Warne.

In the Sri Lankan camp, vice captain Kumar Sangakkara believes Muralidharan will be fired up to pass the record in Australia but that won’t be the top priority.

Muralidharan was heckled by spectators on his only previous full tour of Australia in 1995-96 after he was no-balled owing to his controversial action.

The 35-year-old spinner boycotted a two-Test series in Australia in 2004 but did play for a World XI in Sydney two years ago.

The first of a two-Test series begins in Brisbane in November 8 and the tourists are hoping to win their first Test in Australia.

“It means a lot to everyone in Sri Lanka that Murali is going to Australia and trying to break the record there,” Sangakkara wrote in his column on a website.

“He’s going to be as excited as a schoolboy. But Murali also realises that his getting those nine wickets is only part of this tour. The bigger picture is to beat Australia; everything else is related to that.”

No touring team has won a Test series in Australia since the West Indies in 1993.

“Murali knows his statistics to the last detail and he’ll know his two other Tests in Australia have produced only three wickets,” Sangakkara added.

“He’ll be devising plans and strategies to get wickets this time.”

Fearing a hostile reception for off-spinner Muttiah Muralidharan at the Australian grounds, Sri Lankan team officials will meet Cricket Australia (CA) on Friday to take stock of the arrangements for crowd management.

The off-spinner had been subjected to taunts of “chucker” by spectators on his previous visits here and the hostile crowd is likely to have a go at him when Sri Lanka play a two-Test series next month.

Sri Lanka coach Trevor Bayliss said though the matter would be up for discussion in a meeting but Muralidharan remains unaffected by it.

“There is a meeting on Friday with CA, and I’m sure it will all come up then. The Australian crowds will probably try to put him off his game, but he has heard all that before. I’m sure it will all come up at the meeting. We aren’t too concerned,” Bayliss was quoted as saying by a local daily.