Kumble- The Great Indian Soldier

Well -There were few tears in the eyes of his fans and lumps in throats like mine as he bowled the last over. The inevitable retirement which was round the corner came, may be one match early thanks to his finger injury sustained in the Delhi Test. Kumble was possibly the most underrated cricketer India had ever seen simply because he won more matches as a bowler for the country on his own than anybodyelse and still he had to answer critics who questioned his bowling credentials from day 1 and as he rightly pointed in a sarcastic way in the final interview he himself is not sure whether he is a 'leg spinner'. But like the man himself he let his actions do the talking rather than answering his critics like the media which crucified his performances through the year and even sports commentators and ex selectors like the 'Colonel' who suggested that he should call it a day. Imagine any cricketer coming out of a general anesthesia after 10 stitches taking three wickets next day and that too a caught and bowled with both hands or performing with a broken jaw in West Indies. Some of his records and statistics which are bit unique are mind boggling.

• 619 wickets, third in all time list, 4.69 wickets per test , wicket for every 65 deliveries and all time fourth in highest 5 and 10 wicket hauls
• The old Indian spin quartet played together 231 matches for 853 wickets and if Kumble had gone on to play the same number of matches he would have ended up with the same strike rate with a phenomenal tally of 1083 wickets
• Only player with a century and 500 + wickets in the game's history
• 5 wicket haul 35 times and 10 wickets in a match 10 times and the beauty is that India won 80% of these matches including the famous 10 wicket in an innings at Delhi with PAK
  

He is truly a match winner and this beautiful article of Suresh Menon highlights some of the above statistics and brings out clearly why Kumble is India's biggest match winner in the History of Indian test cricket. I liked this one liner which sums up his career

'Kumble was described by what he did not do rather than by what he did.'

RK

02/11/08