Why Anil Kumble, the Player, Will Continue to Be My Hero

Anil Kumble took cricket as a mind game and mastered the mental aspect of it. Everything else followed.

Anil Kumble took cricket as a mind game and mastered the mental aspect of it. (Photo: Reuters)

My best friend in school also happened to be my hero. Despite being physically weak, he was the only one in our school who knew how to spin a cricket ball and was an accomplished batsman.

He was a good debater, a good singer, and known for securing 10 on 10 in maths in all school examinations. He was the closest to an all-rounder we all admire in all walks of life.

Since I was his most loyal chela (disciple), he agreed to teach me the art of bowling leg spin.

A leg spinner has to pitch the ball around the leg stump and turn it towards the off-stump. If you have control over line and length and surprise the batsman with a sharp turn, you are more likely to take wickets.

Friend during training sessions at school ground

He had, however, warned me that it is very difficult for a right-hander to bowl leg breaks. All accomplished leg spinners – legendary Bishan Singh Bedi and Derek Underwood – have been lefties, he had added.

(Photo: ICC)

Warne-Kumble Duo Mesmerised Us

But we did come across a bunch of prodigious leg spinners who were right-handers. Abdul Qadir, Shane Warne and Anil Kumble were the tallest of them all. Qadir’s unusual run-up would give us enough hints about which way the ball was going to turn.

Shane Warne’s was a measured action but he was the most gifted of them all in skill. The action replay of his ball to Mike Gatting, also touted as the ball of the century, continues to mesmerises cricket lovers around the world till date.

Kumble, however, was the least gifted of them all.

He could hardly turn the ball. For years, we did not know how to put him in any category. Was he a medium pacer, an off-spinner (because of his doosra ball) who occasionally turned the ball the other way, or someone who kept the ball straight? But despite such limitations, he turned out to be one of the most successful bowlers we have ever had.

How? I did not have any answer till I got a chance to meet him in one of the Confederation of Indian Industries functions in New Delhi sometime in the late 1990s.

Kumble Took Cricket as a Mind Game

Kumble was one of the lead speakers at the function. I have very faint memory of what he said. But he came across as someone who was very intelligent, extremely articulate and one of the smartest persons I had seen in my life.

He kept calm despite a range of questions in the form of bouncers coming his way. The meeting answered most of my questions.

Kumble took cricket as a mind game and mastered the mental aspect of it. Everything else followed. His control over line and length (pretty much like Glenn Mcgrath’s probing line around the off-stump that troubled high and mighty of the world cricket), his skill to test the patience of batsmen and his never-say-die approach made him what he eventually became.

(Photo Courtesy: Facebook/AnilKumble)

This is the reason why he took all ten wickets in an innings (only the second bowler ever to achieve that) against Pakistan at Feroz Shah Kotla and could bowl against the West Indies with stitches in his chin.

For someone who has seen it all, it was therefore nothing short of heartbreak when I learned of his unceremonious exit as the head coach of team India. For someone like me, it is hard to believe that Kumble ceased to add value to what Virat Kohli and his team has been doing.

And if he was as valuable a coach as he was as a player, why not make use of his valuable inputs? The Kumble I know and have always admired will continue to be my hero. The loss, surely, will be Kohli and company’s.