A tribute to Kumble's fortitude

Bowlers generally take their batting seriously and want to tell the top-order batsmen that they can contribute more to the team when the chips are down than the batsmen who are keen to turn their arm over.

Bowlers by and large take great pride in their batting and generally complain that they are not encouraged to develop batting skills for fear of neglecting their main chore. That, perhaps, is one reason why the bowlers are not very keen on batting for long even in the nets. Some are even told that they should stick to their bowling and their contribution with the bat can at best be a bonus and not all that relevant to the overall scheme of things. Some other bowlers simply do not want to increase their workload for fear of falling between two stools.

No wonder there is a dearth of genuine all-rounders in today’s cricket. Ask Irfan Pathan and he will tell you the perils of trying to be an all-rounder.

Javagal Srinath is one who consciously stuck to his philosophy that he was there in the team as a bowler and he should not be expected to expend his energies on batting. He could have been a much better lower-order batsman, but a couple of knocks on his knuckles and forearm changed his mindset about batting and he saw it as drudgery.

Unlike his Karnataka teammate, Anil Kumble always wanted to be called a bowling all-rounder. Though no one categorised him as a tail-ender, there was a brief spell when he batted at nine and ten as some bowlers who had pretension to be better batsmen than Kumble superseded him. At another point of time his zest for batting was on the wane as questions were raised about his utility to the side as a bowler and he had to concentrate on his bowling. For most part of his illustrious career, he had put a heavy price on his wicket.

There have been countless occasions when Kumble stuck around with mainline batsmen or with the tail to save the Indian innings. His approach to batting was uncomplicated. Being a tall man he uses his reach to drive fluently on the offside and his trademark stroke is a slap-cut on bended knees. His maiden Test hundred at the Oval was long overdue. In fact, it came ten years too late. He looked an accomplished batsman against a much potent South African attack on a lively Eden Gardens pitch scoring 88. Most of his knocks have intent and purpose. Imagine his Man-of-the-Match award at the Oval is for his batting!

In the last two seasons his contribution as a batsman got deservedly magnified because of the inconsistent batting by the top-order batsmen and some of his knocks proved crucial and match-saving, a couple of times even match-winning. He has quietly carried on without a murmur even when he was unfairly treated by his captains. It is a great tribute to his character and fortitude. Lesser mortals would have cracked and called it quits. A pity, his last World Cup in the Caribbean four months ago was disastrous, batsmen letting the side down, while he played just one game at the 2003 edition in South Africa when India figured in the final.

Kumble’s presence on a cricket field is hardly noticed when he is not taking wickets. Suddenly, at the Oval, he chose to react a bit abrasively when Kevin Pietersen involuntarily tried to cross his path while backing up for a run. It is too late in the day for him to get noticed for such antics, though the prolific England batsman laughed off the incident as nothing of consequence.

For some inexplicable reason, Kumble’s name is not taken in the same breath as those of the two other celebrated spinners Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan or pace man Glenn McGrath whom he has just overtaken to position himself behind the top two in the world as the highest wicket-takers’ list. He may not be charismatic like Warne or Murali, butt there are few gentleman-cricketers the likes of his in today’s game where winning is everything.

The statisticians used to prod the cricket theoreticians to point out that Kumble’s overseas record has paled in comparison to his exploits on the dusty sub-continental pitches. His analytical engineering mind has addressed the problem by adjusting his delivery mode, pace, line and length and in the new millennium he has been as devastating overseas, be it Australia, South Africa or England. Though in the recent series he had run through the tail in the first two Tests, but at the Oval he had mesmerized the top-order batsmen.

Kumble can now tell Warne, Murali and McGrath that he has two remarkable achievements they cannot boast of, a Test hundred and all ten wickets in a Test innings! If someone pipes up to say that his century was against a nondescript England attack, he can tell them that he had defied the hostile Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard, who were missing from the Oval line-up, when England were in India the last time to get a match-saving fifty at Nagpur.

Kumbe has another plus as he is the oldest player to get maiden Test hundred and that will be difficult to emulate in this cut-throat competitive world cricket. Still, he wants to be a bowler with more than 600 wickets. He should cross the mark by the end of the season. He reminds you that cricket is still a gentleman’s game.

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