Anil Kumble: The man, the machine

A qualified mechanical engineer, who luckily for India chose cricket as his career. He went on to become India’s greatest match-winner, words would be difficut to define Anil Kumble. Gautam Sheth gives it a shot

How do you define a mechanical engineer’s worth? Well, the answer lies in the engineer’s precision and accuracy while dealing with the job in hand. Anil Radhakrishna Kumble combined his qualified mechanical engineering skills with his cricketing skills to become one of the most meticulous tweaker in the game. Never termed as a classical leg-spinner in the game, he relied on his strengths to bowl darting deliveries with googly and leg spinners as his variations.

Following his idol BS Chandrashekhar, this lanky spinner has caught players around the world unaware of what’s coming to them with his immaculate precision.

Within 124 Indian Test caps, Jumbo, as he is fondly known, attained the awe-inspiring figure of 600 wickets. His 600th scalp being Andrew Symonds caught at slip by his state mate Dravid in the ongoing Perth Test match and the first ever being Allan Lamb in 1990 test against England.

His boulevard to this figure was interesting to know; he took his 100th wicket in his 21st Test when Warney took 23 tests. 200th wicket for Kumble came in the 47th when Warney finished the task in the 42nd test. 300 was touched in 66th test whereas Warne completed the feat in 63rd test.

Kumble reached the 400th wicket in 85th but Warne took 92 tests to reach there. The 500 figure for Kumble came in 105th test and Warne lagged behind to achieve this with 108 Test. The 600 mark was touched by him in his 124th test beating Warne’s numbers 126th Test.

Anil Kumble has all possible best records for a bowler to boast in his name. He is only the 4th bowler in the history of Test cricket and only Indian to have taken 5 wickets in a Test innings for more than 30 times. He is the only Test cricketer to have taken all ten wickets in an innings and score a Test hundred in his career. He took his first 50 Test wickets in just 10 Test matches, the fastest an Indian bowler had achieved the milestone. He is one of only 2 Indian bowlers (the other being Javagal Srinath) and one of only 3 spinners (the others being Muralitharan and Jayasuriya) to have taken over 300 ODI wickets. The immortal of all being his perfect 10 against Pakistan in Delhi.

He is also technically and statistically India’s best match-winning bowler. Kumble has taken 600 of the 1960 wickets India have taken, and over a third of the team's wickets at home, i.e. 343 of the 977 wicket. You can’t beat the figures. They are as huge as his personality.

Kumble’s tenacity stands firm and known to the world. He defied all odds when he bandaged his fractured jaw during a test match against West Indies to deliver a stirring spell and claimed the prized wicket of Brian Lara. Not to forget his marathon spell of 72 overs against Sri Lanka in Colombo in 1997.

Anil has been one of the cleanest cricketers the game has ever seen. With being one of the flag bearers of the dying art of spin in the world, Anil kept his game simple on the doctrine of line and length. At the speed at which he has reached the figure in quicker time than Shane Warne, no one would be surprised if he finds a place in the illustrious 700-club. There has been no stopping for the giant killer who has bowled 6423 overs in 18 years of test cricket in spite of going under the knife once.

Possibly, Kumble could be on the top of the lists of the unsung heroes in the game of cricket. To end on a trivial note, did you know that Anil Kumble got his name from his ancestral village called Kumble located 14 kilometers north to of Kasargod town in Kerala.