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Cricket lovers are suckers for nostalgia. The past is painted in glorious hues, every minor incident appears a milestone in retrospect, and almost every player who has retired even with only a handful of runs and tote-bag full of wickets is anointed ‘great’.

Cricket lovers, if it must be said, are a self-indulgent lot. The mock solemnity that accompanies such exercise often makes it farcical, but I will risk the hazards of walking down memory lane because it would be blasphemous to let Anil Kumble’s singular achievement of taking all 10 wickets in an innings go unremembered.

Ten years ago, almost to the day, Kumble began his conquest of Pakistan, as it were, at the Ferozeshah Kotla. India were a Test match down, having lost in Chennai, and since it was a two-Test series (a concept which I find utterly nonsensical), it was a must-win situation for India. I remember being at the ground on the eve of the Test and seeing Kumble rub his hands more in anticipation of things to come rather than to keep warm in the Delhi winter.

“We should do well here,’’ he said, which turned out to be the understatement of the year.

The Kotla wicket was admittedly wicked, for with each passing session, it started breaking and crumbling rapidly. Yet it needed some extraordinary effort from Mohammad Azharuddin’s team because Pakistan had in their midst Saqlain Mushtaq and Mushtaq Ahmed, two wonderful spinners, not to mention Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, two outstanding swing bowlers. But India had Kumble.

In hindsight, it now appears plain to me that Kumble was the best ‘bad’ wicket bowler of his time. His record on Indian pitches is outstanding, and far ahead of even Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan, with whom Kumble has often been compared, alas unfavourably because he was not a prodigious turner of the ball. But there were pitches and situations which any batsman who has played all three spinners would agree, Warne and Murali were manageable, Kumble simply unplayable.

For the record, India won the Kotla Test with a day to spare, Kumble claiming all 10 wickets in the Pakistan second innings. In terms of individual statistical achievement, only Viru Sehwag’s triple hundred at less than a run-a-ball against South Africa last year comes anywhere close. But heck, ten wickets in an innings remains amongst the ‘rarest of rare’ feats in a Test match; like a tie, it has happened only twice in almost 140 years, so it must rate as the best performance ever by an Indian.

The theoretical possibility of this taking place must be seen in the context of the probability of the bowler(s) at the other end going wicketless and the pressure on the bowler taking wickets, to go on to take all ten. And to think, that one was witness to this event!

After India had won the match, I remember being nonplussed. “Well bowled,’’ was all I could tell Kumble that day. Now perhaps, something more effusive too is in order, for the impact of that performance is as everlastingly unforgettable as is the value of the achievement.

So, “well played again Anil, and thank you for the memories.”