 A master at his peak
 It’s amazing how Anil Kumble seems to be getting better with age, like old wine. I am one of several people to have written him off every now and then, only for the never-say-die Karnataka leg-spinner to come bouncing back with renewed vigour. In the last couple of seasons, he has triumphed over injuries and added new tricks to his bag of wares, and assumed menacing proportions as an attacking bowler. He is frequently slower through the air nowadays, his leg break turns a lot more than it did in the past, so does his googly, and subtle variations in flight are now part of his armoury. His self-belief is stronger than ever and his famed accuracy undented by the greater variety in his bowling. Physically, Kumble looks none the worse for wear, in fact, fresher and fitter than many younger cricketers.
What distinguishes Kumble from others of his ilk, and I mean cricketers on the wrong side of 30, is his undiminished appetite for wickets and the battle of Test cricket. Ball after ball, over after over, he wheels away untiringly, never deviating from his goal of snaring batsmen. He still appeals with all the passion of a true believer and still walks back to the top of his bowling run with the eagerness of a teenager.
In the Chepauk and Ferozshah Kotla Tests, Kumble has been in mid-season form, testing the Sri Lankan batsmen with unrelenting accuracy and infinite patience. There is a spring in his stride and his head has not drooped even once in the last three innings. His tumbling effort to catch Marvan Atapattu off his own bowling on the fourth day of the Delhi Test was typical of the way Kumble plays his cricket — focused, alert and fiercely competitive.
Kumble’s total dedication to the game also means that he tends to wear his heart on his sleeve. Always the perfect gentleman, suave and articulate off the field, he is rather more demonstrative on it. He frowns and grimaces when he believes he has been let down by his teammates. Even half chances and brave but unsuccessful attempts to stop the ball invariably earn his wrath. His shows of ill temper on such occasions suggest that the competitive instincts get the better of him when things do not go according to plan.
He has also taken of late to elaborate celebrations when things go right! The high fives and gleeful jigs after each wicket somehow do not go well with Kumble’s off the field image of a sober, mellow citizen of the cricket world. No one would begrudge him his right to self-expression as befitting a 21st century sportsman, but ardent admirers of this outstanding cricketer — and I am one of them — would surely like their hero to show greater equanimity in good times and bad. After all, his achievements as a bowler are no less than those of our batting greats, perhaps even greater in many ways. Should he not then carry himself on a cricket ground with grace worthy of his iconic status?
V Ramnarayan
|
