Turning less But with Effectiveness -- PART 1 (By Priyam Bhattacharjee)
It was in 1974.the year in which Karnataka had won the Ranji trophy for first time.a team that had boosted a fine spin duo – Prasanna & Chandrasekhar. Right from the state govt to the smallest cricket club threw parties to honour the victorious team .the Bangalore reporters guild arranged a “meet the press” programme. Mr. M. Chinnaswamy, the then secretary of the Karnataka state
association., participated in that programme with his inimitable style -witty & down-to-earth statements. A young journalist asked him, “what are your plans to produce another spin-duo ??’’ , the grand old man retorted, “Prasanna & Chandrasekhar cant be produced,they are born”. The journalist reframed his question,” what will happen to state cricket after the days of this twin?”, prompt came the reply: “god alone knows”. However,few would have thought that Mr. Chinnaswamy might prove right.for that matter,the great man himself would not have wished it that way as almost 20 years since this incident, a spinner of the calibre of Prasanna & Chandrasekhar yet to arrive in the Indian scene, however,the gods have been kind to make 1992-93 , a season when a spinner, answering to the name ANIL KUMBLE, became a celebrity in indian cricket. Anil kumble was born in 17th October,1970 in mysore,Karnataka. This article is solely dedicated to that great man, the undisputed hero of indian cricket who had done everything for his country.
With 619 wickets in his tally,it’s the third highest of alltimes in test history,just behind of the great magical duo of SHANE WARNE & MUTTIAH MURALIDHARAN, @29.65 with best figures of 10/74. He was equally a very descent performer in odi too with 337 wickets @30.89 with his best of 6/12 against west indies in hero cup in 1993 was the best individual performance by an indian till 2014. In
IPL too,in the shortest format,he had done a pretty fine job there with 45 wickets @23.51 with career best of 5/5 against RR at the age of almost 40, which is quite remarkable for any player.
Though he was regarded as bowler but very few knows that his batsmanship cant be at ignorable level with career best of 110 against England in oval in 2007, including 5 fifties too as well. These numbers have reflected his quality batting skills.not only in test but in first-class cricket too, he showed great sign of his batting with 5572 runs @21.68 with 154* being his highest. His debut u-19 test was against Pakistan where he scored 113 & 76 in both the innings.
Today,on his birthday, let's have some unknown & interesting stories of making kumble,specially in test & fc , by how a ”does not turn” bowler became one of the greatest spinner of this game ever played. Kumble’s fc debut was against HYDRABAD on 30th nov,1989 since then, he played 244 matches in FC cricket with 1136 wickets to his name @25.83 having 72 5-wicket haul in innings & 20 10-wicket haul in match.
Let's take a look on his fc career tournament wise :-
Batting & bowling :-
trophy match innings runs avg 100s 50s highest
Ranji: 35 50 1417 33.36 3 11 154*
Duleep
(S.Z) : 10 17 478 34 1 2 111*
Irani : 4 7 109 15 - - 46
trophy wickets 5-wk 10-wk Best
Ranji: 195 11 2 8/41
Duleep(S.Z): 35 1 - 5/42
Irani: 33 3 2 7/33
For india in FC other than test, he played 28 matches to score 437 runs with 1 hundreds & 1 fifty,with 100* being highest & took 79 wickets ,5 time 5wk & 1 time 10 wckt with best of 6/49.
In county cricket too,he left significant sign of his batting bowling both. Played 32 matches,scored 516 runs with best of 56 & took 169 wickets with best of 8/100.
But, before all of this, he had to suffer a lot of fight with his surroundings. He had to wait for a year for his international test debut after his fc debut. Though his odi debut was some months before his test debut in austral-asia cup in 1990, but he was simultaneously doing engineering also. After coming back from his debut tour, he had given exam of 26 engg papers according to his promise to his college & family. & interestingly passed 18 out of those 26 papers with distinction, that showed how much brilliant student he was. But he had stopped his cricket career for 2 years to complete his engineering . After pursuing it, he again cameback in cricket in a irani trohy match for rest of india
,when his match figure of 13/138 against delhi ensured his place for a combined tour of Zimbabwe & RSA tour in national side. After this he never looked back.
In 1995, he joined county with Northamptonshire & took 105 wickets @20.40. this feat was a record as he was the only bowler in that season who took more than 100 wickets.
His best performance was against Hampshire in a drawn match when he picked 13/192 & this performance effectively earned him “WISDEN CRICKETER OF THE YEAR” in 1996.Later on, he played for LICHESTERSHIRE & SURREY. By these records in 3-4 years in between, his spot in indian cricket was very much secure.
Kumble would have certainly become an outstanding engineer but would not have been anywhere in the world of cricket . in his early age, Kumble was a medium pacer. It was Dinesh,who told him to switch to spin for he (Anil) might be called for ‘chucking’. Like a true younger brother,Anil listened to Dinesh.even that switch in style did not bring results at a rapid pace,& as most cricket followers would remember,kumble hit the international headlines only as a batsman,hitting century in debut U-19 test against pakistan. As a boy who had underwent national camps for u-15,17,19 years.
Kumble was known more for his batting abilities. But Kumble became a different cricketer once he made his debut in fc cricket but curiously though, Kumble did not do much in the couple of duleep trophy matches he had played. He took 3/153 against west zone which piled up 700-odd runs at Rourkela,then in the next season against east, he shone as a batsman,making 60-odd runs. That was the main reason why even those who keenly followed his progress were pleasantly surprised at his feat in the 1992 Irani trophy match in new
delhi.
Even in Internationals, he had suffered a lot of uncertainty there as he was considered only as bowler for limited overs matches.he had played in one test & two ODIs in England & two one dayers in sharjah. Therefore, when he was not considered for the world cup, Kumble’s chances of coming back to the national side looked bleak,but he did not think so. After that memorable Irani Cup performance Kumble went on the twin tour & played all the five test - 1 against Zimbabwe , 4 against RSA. His 6/56 at Jo’burg & gutsy efforts in other matches made him an automatic choice for the home series against England when he grabbed 21 wickets in the 3-match series as India whitewashed the visitors 3-0.
(TO BE CONTINUED...)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY “JUMBO”...!!
STAT SOURCE- HowStat, StatGuru
INFORMATION SOURCE – Indian Cricket 1993, 47th Edition
SPECIAL THANKS to Mr. Sumit Gangopadhyay for his support and help with his countless knowledge!
Writer- PRIYAM BHATTACHARJEE
Thanks for reading FRONT FOOT BLOG. Keep visiting this blog to get cricket updates and articles. Press the Like button and share this post if you like it. Comment here and say your opinion.
Subscribe my FRONT FOOT BLOG to get the notification e-mail on every new post.
Bidding adios for now. Will come back soon with the SECOND PART as well as LAST PART of this article. Keep Watching Cricket!
Cheers and Enjoy Bengali's Greatest Festival Durga Puja.
Stay connected, stay healthy and spread the love. 
© FRONT FOOT
Comments
Post a Comment