I take great pride in writing about my favorite cricketer of all times. I am sorry.You had taken a wrong guess. It is not the little maestro. Well ! I don’t deny that Sachin is the greatest cricketer of all times.The way he plays the sport always brings a visual treat to us. I am completely delighted that his current form is impeccable, which, I wish and pray, continues at least until the upcoming ODI world cup. I completely adore him, both as a person and as a cricketer.
Let me stop here from digressing further. One hint would suffice to identify my king of stars. People call him JUMBO. Yes, you got it right this time.“Anil Kumble”, one of the greatest legends of Cricket. While I write about him, I just can’t stop rewinding my memories, back to the thrilling moments of Hero Cup final. Oh! God! What a match to watch? 6 for 12 in a championship final? It is not just the statistics that speak about him, but the unique style, the passion in his blood and the dedication flooded in him.
It is a known fact that he kicked off his career as a medium pacer only to become a “Spinner”. I don’t want to attach much of importance to his critics, which, complain that he doesn’t turn the ball well, to be called a “Spinner”. As a matter of fact, it is only the blend of his pace and gentle spin that makes the person on the other end and even the one just behind him, turn absolutely clueless. No one on earth can bowl the flippers that he does, with such precision and perfection.
Some of the peculiar incidents of the sport happen, only when this man grabs the ball to offer problems to the person with the Bat. We would have seen some batsmen having headgears on, when a spinner is bowling. It is only, when, our Jumbo warms up to bowl, can you get to see a wicket keeper calling for a helmet. How many Skippers in this world throw the ball to a spinner, for him to bowl the 2nd over of an ODI and that too in a world cup semi final? Kumble was given that task.
Does luck play a role in life? Yes, certainly, is my answer. Else, I cannot call myself unlucky to have missed watching his 10 wicket haul, live in TV.Thanks to the power failure at my residence only during those golden hours that I had to tune into the live radio commentary, to hear about his wonderful stint in Kotla. With my ears filled with all praises to this man, the fall of every wicket did open up my imagination channel to watch how, he sent every batsman to the pavilion. Needless to mention, that I watched the ball by ball repeat later to correlate my visual imaginations.
The fighter in him refuses to budge until the last ball of the match is bowled.This passionate cricketer of all times does not get tired with bowling large number of overs. Even a fracture in the jaw does not, in any way, deter him from rolling up his arms. I just wondered what courage and passion, it takes for a man to bowl with a bandage around his head, when, he did that in Antigua to dismiss Lara. While, all the memories about this gem, could not be listed here for sheer lack of space, they will never fade with the passage of time.
Watching his Television interviews and post match conference not just brings out his modesty and demureness, but conveys the unequivocal thoughts in him. His statement“Only one team played the game in the right spirit” after the match in Australia only went on to command a great deal of respect for him, from all fronts. I salute his contribution to the game and respect him for all the good qualities he possesses.
