I have always been of the opinion that Indian cricket and Indian cricketers, do not deserve even half the fanatic blind support they recieve , the emotion and the passion they evoke amongst the masses. But today , I take it all back , all for one man - Anil Kumble. http://akshaygn.blogspot.com/2006/10/celebrating-jumbo.html
I have been a faithful fan of his right through the dark ages of Indian Cricket (1992-1999/2000) where right/left arm 'allegedly' fast , full toss bowlers - Srinath, Prasad, Kuruvilla, Mohanty, Harvinder Singh, Salil Ankola, Manoj Prabhakar, Mhambrey, Dodda Ganesh , Youhannan, Noel David , etc (phew ! thats quite a lot!) would invariably lose the plot in the opening overs of our bowling. They would have Sanath-Kalu followed by Aravinda , Anwar-Sohail and then Ejaz (I hated him), and Gibbs-Kirsten hitting all of them all over the park.....and poor old Azhar and later on , Sachin would have to bring in Kumble well within the 15 overs .Instead of attacking , he would have to bowl defensively and in spite of this ,he more often than not could take wickets.He never got credit for what he did.And soon injuries , a few bad performances , some bad luck and finally Kiran More as the chief of selectors ended Kumble's one day career prematurely after the 2007 WC.
I have always been a bowler's fan - whichever form or cricket it may be. The satisfaction of seeing a batsman getting out lbw to a Kumble special rocket flipper is matched only by the replays of Murali's sadistically obscene heinous crimes against batsmen on Lankan pitches.I have been a faithful fan of his right through the dark ages of Indian Cricket (1992-1999/2000) where right/left arm 'allegedly' fast , full toss bowlers - Srinath, Prasad, Kuruvilla, Mohanty, Harvinder Singh, Salil Ankola, Manoj Prabhakar, Mhambrey, Dodda Ganesh , Youhannan, Noel David , etc (phew ! thats quite a lot!) would invariably lose the plot in the opening overs of our bowling. They would have Sanath-Kalu followed by Aravinda , Anwar-Sohail and then Ejaz (I hated him), and Gibbs-Kirsten hitting all of them all over the park.....and poor old Azhar and later on , Sachin would have to bring in Kumble well within the 15 overs .Instead of attacking , he would have to bowl defensively and in spite of this ,he more often than not could take wickets.He never got credit for what he did.And soon injuries , a few bad performances , some bad luck and finally Kiran More as the chief of selectors ended Kumble's one day career prematurely after the 2007 WC.
Yet, No cricketer's feat has brought me so much joy as Kumble did when he reached his maiden test century.....!
He is now (at the end of the 2nd day in the 3rd test at the Oval) at 561 wickets , 2 short of Glenn McGrath's 563 wickets. Lets hope he achieves two feats in the same match.
PS : Kumble now holds the record for the maximum mathces played before scoring a test century (117) , previously held by Vaas (97). He also holds the record for maximum wickets taken lbw followed by.
Shane Warne , Murali , Kumble - 3 contemporary greats will soon be at the head of the list of leading wicket takers in tests. Kumble , may not be the greatest in terms of wickets tally or average (although he has an almost equal 'wickets per match' figure as that of Shane Warne) ; but he will surely have the highest test score amongst the three here ! Shane Warne : highest score - 99 out ! eat your heart out Shane....!
Current Mood : Euphoric
Current Song : Chale Chalo (OST Lagaan - A R Rahman)
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