They called him all sorts of names. They declared him unsuitable for Cricket. They even called for his retirement. But the fighter in Kumble kept coming back at them. Again and again he showed the class and quality of his talent. Anil Kumble is all set to overtake Kapil Dev as the highest wicket taker for India in Test Cricket. It?s a pity that he won?t be doing it on Indian soil. We all saw Kapil get that world record at Ahmedabad in 1994, and we would have loved to see Kumble overhaul it at Eden Gardens.

How many times have you wondered why Kumble isn?t bowling when the team has its back against the wall? How many times have you cried out loud ?Give the ball to Kumble dammit!!!? ? That is the mark of this man. He makes every Indian go crazy when he?s bowling. One is compelled to sit up and watch each and every over that he bowls, whether it is a Test match or a One-day match. It is really entertaining to watch the batsmen try to play non-existent shots to attack him, or unsuccessfully try to get outside the line of the ball to leave it.

Anil Kumble made a quite debut on India?s tour to England in 1990, at Manchester. He is a right-hand batsman and bowls right-arm leg break. He is more renowned for his bowling heroics but few know that he is a useful batsman too, as he has scored 6 centuries and 15 half-centuries at the first-class level. He is only the second man in the world and the only Indian to take all 10 wickets in an inning. (How can we forget that famous Test match at Ferozshah Kotla back in 1999).
 
He has taken 28 five-wicket hauls and 6 ten-wicket hauls in Test cricket, the maximum by an Indian. It is a matter of pure coincidence that he took his 100th, 300th, and 400th wickets at his home ground Bangalore. His record in One-day Internationals is equally good with 321 wickets (and still counting).

Kumble started making progress as soon as he was recalled for the historic tour to South Africa in 1992. He ended up with 21 wickets in that 4 test series. We had found a new spinning sensation. South African pitches are not renowned for spin bowling and yet Kumble had snared 21 victims, which spoke volumes of his ability and talent. But somehow, he lost that golden touch on the next few tours away from the sub-continent.
 
The primary reason could have been that in the early part of his career, India played more at home than abroad. He had little experience of bowling abroad, and consequently, he suffered badly in England in 1996 and in South Africa in 1996-97. In fact, the South Africans had devised a plan to play him more like a medium fast bowler, which nullified all of his ability. He staged a kind of comeback against Australia in 1998, when he snapped up 23 wickets in 3 tests. If Tendulkar haunted Warne in that series, then Kumble haunted the whole of the Aussie team.

The crowning glory came against Pakistan, in New Delhi on one cloudy day of February. Pakistan had already made more than 100 runs without losing any wickets, and when his turn came to bowl to well set batsmen of the caliber of Saeed Anwar, He worked his magical fingers on the ball and spun India to a historic victory. Kumble had taken all 10 wickets and with that, he silenced his critics and made the world stand up and applaud his feat.

Kumble is not an outspoken man; he lets his bowling speak for himself. Superstardom of the Tendulkars, Gangulys and Dravids has always evaded him. He has always kep a low-profile for himself. When bowling, he is a cool customer who seldom gives away runs. And when he does give runs away, he is annoyed with himself.

He can almost kick himself if he sees a ball cross the boundary. He has a tendency to drift down the leg side at times, and it frustrates him more than anyone else. Perhaps this is the only flaw in his bowling technique that he hasn?t been able to rectify in all these years. He isn?t a big spinner of the ball (like Murali or Warne) and he relies more on line and length of his deliveries. He is also a bit quicker through the air than most other spinners.

People have always complained that he has never really performed well for the tem abroad. But he has changed it all in the recent years. He took 24 wickets on the last tour to Australia. He later took 6-71 against Pakistan on a dead flat track of Multan, though his feat went unnoticed because of Sehwag?s triple ton. He is a gritty player. There is nothing that can stop him from taking wickets if he finds himself in a position to do so.
 
A case in example is the Test at Antigua in 2002. Having a broken jaw, he was advised rest by the team doctors. But when he saw the puff of dust on the pitch, his spinning fingers began itching for the ball. Pretty soon, he was on the field with just a bandage around his face, and bowling to the West Indian batsmen. He had pushed his body beyond its limits to do so, and had succeeded.

Whenever we Indians talk about spinners, we invariably refer to the spin quartet of Bedi, Prasanna, Vankat and Chandrashekar. But we forget the heroics of Kumble. At the start of his career, he was the deadliest among the spin trinity along with Raju and Rajesh Chauhan. And in recent years, he has played the support part of the unpredictable Bhajji. It is Kumble who is responsible for the revival of leg-spin bowling in India and he deserves to be on top given that he comes from a land that has a tradition of producing quality spinners.

Who is your favorite sports player in this field?

Kapil Dev