On Anil Kumble's 44th birthday: The match winner India forgot to celebrate

Friday is Anil Kumble's 44th birthday. The spinner, who played 132 Tests for India and took 619 wickets, is regarded as one of the better spinners of all time. He retired after a tough home series against Australia in 2008, but will forever be known as one of the hardest-working cricketers ever.

As Kumble joined Twitter on his 44th birthday, it is worthy to note that here was a cricketer with limited talent, who made it to the top echleons of bowling by the time he had retired. Here was a man who was ridiculed by another great - Kapil Dev - during his earliest games, and yet went on to prove Dev wrong. The only ingredient for Kumble's success was extraordinary hard work.

Kumble did not possess the magical spin and rip of a Shane Warne, nor the guile of Mutthiah Muralitharan. Indeed, he was accused of not being a spinner at all, because he didn't really spin the ball! Kumble's bowling instead constituted of deliveries that skid off the surface and hurried the batsmen. 

During the 1990s Anil Kumble destroyed foreign opposition on tailor-made tracks that spun square from Day 4. He averaged a measly 20 at home in that decade, and was the one bowler India could rely on, just as Sachin Tendulkar was the one batsman India could back to perform.

Kumble's crowning glory of the 90s was a perfect 10 wickets against Pakistan in the second innings at Delhi in 1999. The haul sent Pakistan tumbling to defeat, and Kumble did what Sachin Tendulkar had failed to accomplish in the previous match at Chennai - win the match for India.

The key difference though, was that Tendulkar was equally extraordinary away from the subcontinent as at home, while Kumble just failed to make a significant impact. The result was that India failed to win a single Test match outside the subcontinent during the entire decade of the 90's. 

When the 2000s arrived, the Indian cricketing scene was suddenly changing. A young spinner called Harbhajan Singh was creating waves, bamboozling Australia in the 2001 home series to lead India to a famous 2-1 win. Questions were raised about Kumble's ability, but also about his relevance. Under Sourav Ganguly's captaincy, Kumble ceased to be a permanent fixture in the ODI side any more. 

Then came a certain day in the West Indies in 2002. The incident that would become famous in cricketing history happened in the 4th Test at St. John's, Antigua. With the series tied at 1-1, both teams toiled away on a dull wicket. Coming in at No 7 in India's first innings, Kumble was hit by a snorter from Mervin Dillon. He spat out blood, but continued to bat with a broken jaw. Then, he came out to bowl with the broken jaw bandaged, bowled 14 overs and took the wicket of Brian Lara. The sight of Kumble bowling like that was hugely inspiring not just for an Indian fan but to the world of cricket in general. In a sport awash with match-fixing scandals, the memories of which were yet to fade completely, here was a man who embodied relentless perseverance and dedication to his craft.

That day in Antingua represented everything Kumble stood for: extraordinary struggle in the face of extreme adversity, which more often than not led to a brilliant reward.

Another year and a half would pass before Kumble truly came alive outside the subcontinent. His 24 wickets in the 2003-4 series in Australia were instrumental to attaining the eventual 1-1 result, a historic one at that. But after that there was no looking back.

Even as wickets back home became flatter and flatter, not quite offering the turn they once did, Kumble learned his craft outside the subcontinent, putting in good series performances in England and the West Indies. As a result, his overseas average, which was nudging 40 at one point, fell to 35 by the end of his career, even as he went backwards at home. During the 2007 series in England, Kumble would score his maiden (and only) Test century - 110 at the Oval. It was very significant that no other Indian batsman managed a century in that series!

But it would be delusional to judge Anil Kumble on mere performance. He was forever the man who worked the hardest and was praised the least. So ignored was he that Test captaincy came to him in 2007 only via default, because there was nobody willing or able to captain the side after Rahul Dravid resigned. It was unfortunate that the following year saw his worst dip in form, and led to his retirement. After an injury in the 2008 home series against Australia, Kumble decided he had to retire with haste, and bid adieu before the last test.

The good part was that he retired while the time was ripe, while he still held a place of pride in the hearts of Indian fans. But that was Anil Kumble - he was never one to linger around after he thought he could do no more. There was no grand farewell, no backdoor negotiations with selectors for one more series and no outburst of anger. 

Rahul Dravid retired with grace after the 0-4 drubbing in Australia in 2011-12. VVS Laxman retired in frustration. Sourav Ganguly bargained for his farewell series. Sachin Tendulkar arguably had an entire series organised just for him, leaving the stage in the grandest manner possible. Kumble just retired, and people moved on with their lives.

On Friday, Kumble's Twitter handle received nearly 12,000 followers on his first day on the social network. Not bad? Well, any other Indian cricketer, even a slam-bang Twenty20 hero of today garners several times that number on any day, not just his first. 

But if anyone cared to look back at India's cricketing records over the last two decades, Anil Kumble would emerge as the foremost match winner. The best at winning games, and the last at being recognised for doing so. Perhaps because his action wasn't flashy, perhaps because he didn't turn the ball. Or maybe because his life was not dogged by tabloid-worthy affairs with beautiful women or allegations of chucking. Nor was it filled with aggressive or immature behaviour off the field. There were no on-field misdemeanours either, and no drunken brawls. There was just a simple, hardworking bowler who did not turn the ball.

In other words, Kumble was not controversial, and he was a spinner who did not spin. Those two attributes were enough to consign a player to the hinterland of cricketing memories. But in the pantheon of India's cricketing greats, if there was one player you could idolise without any second thoughts at all, it would have to be Anil Kumble.

P.S.: It is testimony to how under-appreciated Anil Kumble is, that I could not find with ease, a video of him bowling with the broken jaw against the West Indies.