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| Kumble calls it a day, your thoughts? | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  |
The Unsung hero
Anil Kumble if any people hear this name they may say he is the meaning of commitment, Hardwork and persistence. He has always been committed as a cricketer by giving his team lot of victories, He has always put lot of effort and hardwork on his bowling by inventing and setting new tricks which gave lot of success in abroad of his later part of his career, He has always persisted with accurate line and length of bowling even though things would have not gone is way. The best example of his persistence was when he came and bowled with the broken jaw in West Indies which helped team India to get the wicket of Brain Lara. In his last test match at kotla[New Delhi] even with 20 bandages on his left hand he came, bowled and got three wickets. He was a versatile person who was known for many qualities as dignified person, committed cricketer, elderly states man, great leader and nice gentleman both on and off the field. His leadership qualities were proved in Australia last year where he showed great character after the Sydney fiasco which also helped Team India to win the Perth test and salvage some pride. When Greg Chapell was the Indian coach he had open grudges in the commitment of Sachin, Saurav and other players. But on any day he did not question the commitment of Anil Kumble. This proves how commited he was as a cricketer. He got recognition, support and respect from outside cricketers, coach and commentary people. John Wright Said I still cannot understand the system of Indian Cricket where Anil Kumble is not offered the captaincy role. He will be the first person in giving maximum series victories in India. He is a man who believed actions speak louder than words by always proving his critics wrong giving series victories in England, West Indies and giving good performance in Australia, South Africa and Newzeland. The Australians started showing real respect to him when took some 50 wickets in Australia of the test series of 2003 and 2007.
When Dravid called off a day in last year as a captain some of our Indian commentators said Sachin should be made as captain. Sachin being a good human being and knowing off his limitations declined the offer. He was given the role by the selectors and BCCI not with great interest but he proved he can be a very great leader by winning the series against Pakistan and reviving the team’s fortune in Australia after the Sydney fiasco. He neither had the strong Government support like Sachin nor the media support like Dhoni which helped them to get the awards like Khel Ratna, Padma Visbhushan and Padma Bhushan. A man who has not scored test century abroad nor cemented his place in all formats of the game is given Khel Ratna which happens to be the highest individual sporting award but the other man who got all these honors really deserves it. Twenty Twenty may be a glamour which is highly entertaining but test cricket is a game where your skill and character is tested at your highest level.
If you take Test Cricket as parameter in giving the awards Kumble has given his heart and soul to Indian cricket by becoming the first Indian and third in the world to cross that 600 wicket milestone. At his peak of his career he has always been a major threat in one dayers to all teams. We the people are requesting the government of India and BCCI to Consider his achievements and give him the deserving honors like Sachin. Last but not least taking 600 wickets in test matches is almost equal to scoring twelve thousand runs in test matches. Whether the government and BCCI may recognize his effort in near future or not it is not a problem to Anil Kumble since he may not be erased from the hearts of our knowledgeable cricket lovers like us.
Padmanabhan |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A Jumbo retirement
You must have seen several fine pieces of eulogy about Anil Kumble, especially since this morning. This is one from a cricket enthusiast who has closely followed almost all the international matches that India has played since 1990, the year Kumble made his debut.
There is a sense of pride in letting the world know that Kumble was one of my favourite cricketers. For anyone with questions like; Kumble? - who? why? etc., I throw in statistics that speak for themselves, while I know deep inside that it is much more than just the numbers that differentiates him. We Indians are proud of Kumble not just for the number of matches he won for us but also for the perfect gentleman he was off the field. Erudite, articulate, mature were some adjectives that can describe his media persona. For us hardcore Indian cricket enthusiasts he was India's biggest matchwinner. He was also a cricketer that no one cannot love. He loved his country and gave his all to its cricket team. Catches behind one's back are amongst the most difficult to take. Kumble's last wicket was one where he went hurtling yards behind his bowling run and grabbed a steepler with one severely hurt hand having 11 stitches on it. That to me will be a pointer to the on field legacy that Kumble will leave behind. A 100% committed, indefatigable, intelligent and determined team player. We talk about Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, the great spin quartet, the fab four etc., quite regularly in our cricket discussions on greats, but not so frequently about Kumble. I cannot understand the reasons behind this but know that this is unfair. Hold your breath for the following high points that will leave you in no doubt that here was cricketing 'Jumbo'.
Here was a man who won more tests for India than any other player.
Every bowler dreams of taking all the 10 opposition wickets. However only 2 have ever done so in test history. Kumble is the only one for the last 50 years.
Arguably, India's best bowler.
The only bowler in history to take more than 500 test wickets and also score a test century.
The 3rd highest wicket taker in test history and the highest wicket taker who also captained his country
Bowling, batting, captaining; where is it that Kumble hasn't distinguished himself? He was one of the few that came out of the Sydney test controversy in Australia with an enhanced reputation. Captaining the team under enormous media pressure that almost led to diplomatic incident, lesser mortals would have wilted.
Here's my take on Kumble's career. When he entered the team in 1990, India wasn't amongst the strong cricketing nations in the world. Yes, there were victories here and there, particularly the world cup and the world championship in the one day arena, but test victories were few and far between. From 1993, Kumble formed a spin triumvarate with Venkatapathy Raju and Rakesh Chauhan to bowl India to domestic test victories one after the other. He almost single handedly made India so dangerous on home soil that led to Steve Waugh famously proclaiming, after another failure in 2001, a win against India in India as the final frontier. Since 2001, India, again famously 'tigers at home but pussies abroad', started winning overseas. From no test victory outside the sub continent since 1986, from 2001 India went onto win tests and series against Srilanka, Zimbabwe, West Indies, England, South Africa and Australia. Kumble's performance in most of those test victories was again...match winning. Today, India can strongly proclaim itself as amongst the top 3 cricketing countries and one man who has had a significant contribution to this is Anil Kumble. He is leaving the team far stronger than how he first found it.
There were doubting Thomasses, media that doesn't give credit where its due, tremendous pressure to keep performing and his own aging bones and flesh that always tried to undermine him but like the junction named after him in Bengal madhu |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Its a great loss to India and being a thorough gentleman i feel worls cricket has become further poorer with the departure of Anil. Being from the same city as Anil i felt very sad about his departure , i had always wanted him to go on a high note ...but Anil being a thorough professional and a total team man called it quits when he thought it was time, he is the last person to carry on just for the sake of it. He has proved enough and doesnt have to prove anything more and more so to a person like Dilip Vengsarkar who was after him for no reason. We wll know what poor credentiials Dilip Vengsarkar has and Anil is much ahead of him and i think Vengsarkar had no business to run down the skipper. Anil has been a wonderful captain and brought the team togehter , he is the one who helps youngsters and it is not fair on Vengsarkar to criticise him that he did not handle Amit mishra well . Well you get one sachin , one murali , one waskim akram, one shane warne and only one Anil Kumble . Well done Anil and we are all proud of your achievements and i am more proud that you have kept the heritage of Karnataka state on the lines of other greats like Prasanna, Chandra, Vishy , Binny, Kirmani, Srinath to name a few. Indian cricket will definitely miss you JUMBO. N. VENKATESH |
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