Anil Kumble’s first Test against England in 1990 was not a success and many critics said he would never play a second.
So it was with some satisfaction that Kumble looked back on an 18-year career that took him to No.3 on Test cricket’s alltime list of wicket-takers, a triumph for his fierce determination, intelligence and accuracy, and proof that that there is more than one path for a bowler.
“When I started 18 years ago people said I couldn’t play two Tests for India,” Kumble said.
“I’ve done pretty well over my career.”
For most of his life Kumble’s bowling was described in terms of what he couldn’t do.
He did not turn or flight the ball much, did not drift it, did not drop it.
He certainly did not appeal to the classicist sense of legspin, a la his great contemporary Shane Warne.
But Kumble very seldom bowled a loose ball either and that quality, his suffocating accuracy, was perhaps the chief reason for success.
Kumble was courageous too, once getting Brian Lara out in the West Indies while bowling with a broken jaw, and he never once shirked a contest with ball or bat.
In doing so, he played a key role in shaping a far more streetwise and aggressive Indian team than the one he entered 18 years ago.
“I’d like to be remembered for giving 100 per cent for the team every time I went out, I put team above self, and to have shared dressing with Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and the younger lot I had some fantastic moments, really a privilege to share the dressing room with these greats,” he said.
“I believe Indian cricket has certainly gone further than when I started in 1990, in terms of results, and I can only see that’s going to improve.”
Kumble made his start as a legspin bowler via his brother, who asked him to dabble in the art when they played together as youngsters.
“My brother asked me to bowl legspin,” he said. “In a way I’m still trying to find out how I can bowl legspin.”
wallythefly
Roar Rookie
OJ, true but I'd say there are some pretty good young Indians coming through, Mishra, Sharma etc. Not too sure about the batsman though...
ohtani's jacket
Guest
I don't see why people think India can claim the top spot in Test cricket. Kumble and Ganguly are retiring and the rest will follow in short order. This is the last stand of an experienced Test side.
Greg Russell
Roar Guru
In the India-Australia cricket feed being shown in New Zealand (the one with A Border, B Julian, S Gavaskar, etc. as commentators), a split-screen comparison of the actions of Kumble and White was shown on the final day. It was amazing how similar the two actions are. This gives me hope that White may yet develop into something. On this point, one notes several things about Kumble: (1) The more bowling he did, the better he got; (2) He did not really come good until his late 20s, indeed he took hardly a wicket in Australia (any at all?) until the 2003-4 series, by which stage he was 34 years old. I conclude from this that White is a long-term project and that it is essential that he does lots and lots of bowling for Victoria, as opposed to the barely nothing that he did in 2007-8. I'd also like to say that Kumble is the current Indian cricketer that perhaps should be admired most of all. He brought more steel to this Indian team than any other player, but he did it without being antagonistic (cf. Ganguly, Harbhajan). He grew and grew throughout his career, and always kept surprising people, right to the end. For example, who honestly thought in the twilight of his career he would be as good a captain as he was? Spiro has previously suggested that Gavaskar's name should be withdrawn from the trophy for this series. This will not happen, but in a hypothetical world in which it did happen, then an appropriate new name would be the Border-Kumble trophy, for the two men are very similar in terms of steel and in terms of making the utmost out of limited talent. The question now is as follows: if Kumble is India's Border, then is Dhoni their Mark Taylor, i.e., the succeeding creative captain that takes India to the top of test cricket?
Spiro Zavos
Expert
It has always seemed to me that Anil Kumble should be the model for Cameron White to emulate, not Shane Warne. Warne is in the tradition of leg-spinners going back to Arthur Mailey who gave the ball a huge rip and really spun it from leg to off. White has the trajectory of such a ripper-spinner but does not have the spin. His lack of leg-to-off spin and his tendency to bowl top-spinners (straight balls essentially with a fraction of in-turn) puts White in the rare Kumble and Bill O'reilly category. Except that unlike O'Reilly and Kumble, White bowls with a bit of loft on the ball. He really needs to quicken up and bowl the slower ball (currently his stock ball) as a variation. Of course, at the quicker pace he might not be able to have the consistency of line and length that Kumble and O'Reilly achieved. But in my view it is worth a chance for him to try to do this. He has no future as an an all-rounder if he persists with his present bowling style.