Never-say-die Kumble calls it a day

Cricketers usually acquire nicknames that seem uncannily appropriate, but in Anil Kumble’s case, ‘Jumbo’ seems wholly inadequate. Indeed, with his retirement, Indian cricket has lost a colossus.

At 38, it was always a matter of when rather than why, but even so Kumble calling it quits in the middle of a Test series against Australia will be accompanied by some sadness, and heightens the melodrama of this unusual season in which Sourav Ganguly already announced his retirement a few weeks ago. Clearly an era is coming to a close.

All things considered, the retirement is timely. Yet, great players are hard to come by and, for his wonderful services to Indian cricket, it would have been fitting had Kumble gotten a more memorable farewell. This is a series that a team he has helped consolidate over the past 12 months looks likely to win. Now, on the cusp of that terrific achievement, he is gone.

True his form this year had been mediocre and the unfortunate sudden injury to his left hand in Delhi which effectively ruled him out of the last Test obviously precipitated this decision. But one suspects Kumble was running out of resolve nonetheless in the face of mounting criticism.

The intensity of the contest with Australia has been offset by the soap-opera involving the future of the ‘oldies’ in the Indian team.   

Though propelled by dubious logic, brouhaha about them had reached a crescendo in recent months and obviously took its toll of the players concerned.

A fickle public that does not understand the nuances of the game could be pardoned, a hyperventilating, insensitive media could be accommodated. But when fellow cricketers started shooting indiscriminately from the lip, Kumble, like Ganguly before him, perhaps realised that it was better earlier than later.

It would be impossible to assess his career without getting hyperbolic, such is the power of his statistical achievements. He has 619 Test wickets and 337 in ODIs. He was only the second bowler to have taken all 10 wickets in an innings.

He has won more Tests for India than any other bowler, and has a better strike rate than all other spinners of comparable achievement from any country apart from Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan.

The simultaneous presence of these three in fact revived the magic of spin, which was otherwise waning, and while both Warne and Murali appear better than Kumble in statistical terms, a focused study on how each has fared against their team’s toughest opponents  proves that there really is nothing to choose between them.

If anything, Kumble’s achievements become more laudable because unlike the other two, he was never a big spinner, relying instead on control and nuances of flight to get wickets. Indeed, in the early stages of his career he was derided for being a ‘medium-pacer’ rather than a spinner, and therefore not a worthy successor to the legacy of Bedi, Prasanna, Chandrashekhar and Venkataraghavan.

A lesser person would have been disheartened and crumbled, but Kumble saw in this criticism a unique challenge. Over a period of time, he  not only scuttled such adverse opinion, but proved himself to be better than any other Indian spin bowler so much so that teammate Rahul Dravid was once compelled to write Kumble had “a degree in engineering but a Phd in spin bowling.’’

Such accolades, however, sit lightly on a man who played as much with heart as with head. His fortitude was apparent when he took the field with his broken jaw in bandage against the West Indies in 2002, or even in his last Test when he tore a finger in his left hand, but came back to bowl, take three wickets and a fantastic catch.

Nobody has worn the India cap with more pride, integrity and commitment, few have strived harder and played with more dignity. Now, Kumble is gone, relatively unsung, but a champion nonetheless.

Well played sir!