The Hindu : Sport : Kumble — a true champion

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 22, 2005

Sport

Sport

Kumble — a true champion

Anil Kumble is a true champion and he has done it by being the antithesis of the gregarious Shane Warne. He is quiet, unassuming and rarely spins the ball as extravagantly as the Australian wizard but anyone who underestimates him does so at their peril.

Despite the fact that he is not a big spinner of the ball the mild mannered man from Karnataka is as good a competitor as there is in world cricket and his record becomes more impressive with each Test that he plays. His passive exterior disguises a huge heart and a temperament that would suit a tearaway fast bowler.

Alter ego

He might look like the mild mannered reporter Jimmy Olsen off the field but once he appears from the dressing room he is more like Olsen's alter ego Superman, especially when he has a cricket ball in his hand and there is a game to be won.

When he is in the mood that he was at Kolkata on Sunday you would swear he was bowling a sphere of kryptonite rather than a typical five and a half ounce combination of leather, cork and twine.

Even quality players like Inzamam can be reduced to a stuttering mess as he was on Sunday by the pressure that is exerted by his tight control of line, length and subtle variety that is conjured up from his bounding, energetic run to the wicket.

With shrewd changes of pace and angle created by varying his position on the bowling crease Kumble first dries up the runs as he sucks up the very air that the batsmen need to breathe.

Then he applies the thumb-screws to fingers and toes as normally fluent batsmen struggle to gain any momentum as delivery after delivery pitches in line, on a length neither too full nor too short, and balls variously spit at the batsmen from a length or rush through and crash into pads or bat on the way to the stumps.

The umpires must also feel the pressure when he bowls for every ball is a potential wicket taking opportunity as so few balls are able to be left alone and with fielders generally hovering about the bat on both sides of the wicket the ever present chance of a bat pad catch tests the concentration of all concerned.

Once again it was the combination of Dravid and Kumble who set the foundation for India's win as they did in Adelaide on the 2003/4 tour of Australia.

Dravid — quiet achiever

Dravid is another of the quiet achievers of world cricket. A deep thinker with enormous pride in his performance who as often as not kills you with patience and a straight bat allied with neat cuts and some deftly placed drives, rather than the bludgeon employed by Sehwag or Tendulkar, Dravid's record speaks loudly of his talent.

Pakistan is relying on too few at present and while their batting has shown some welcome improvement their bowling, apart from Kaneria, is their weak point.

Sami showed some good signs in this match and caused some discomfort to some of the Indian batsmen but none of them could dissuade Dravid from his intention to bat for as long as necessary to set India on the path to victory.

Having won in Kolkata it is important that India build on their domination of Pakistan for the final Test in Bangalore. Anything short of another victory would seem to be a waste of a significant advantage in talent, confidence and experience.

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