The Jumbo jet has landed

It's too late and many have probably forgotten but I thought I'd post what I did write on Nov 2nd for this man.

The Jumbo jet has landed ….& will not take off again. No more would Indian wicketkeepers scream “aiga..good one jumbo”…when the ball takes off unannounced & the ball wouldn’t take off ever again the way it did for the past 19 years. Wicket keepers are safe now, they don’t probably need helmets to protect themselves against..ahem..spinners! Batsman of the world celebrate today, one of their greatest tormentors has called it quits. Anil Kumble has bid us a farewell today.

I read about Kumble when he toured South Africa. On South African bouncy tracks, a spinner, who apparently couldn’t spin the ball an inch, was making their batsmen dance to his tunes. It took some time for me to realize that Vinod Kamble wasn’t mis-spelt as Kumble. However, in the Hero Cup that ensued he made me and probably the whole of the world stand up and take notice.

Then we said, ah but he can’t spin, he is a slow medium pacer. Well, some batsmen who seemed to have figured out that he is a “slow in-swing kinda bowler”. It is history now that most of those batsmen committed hara-kiri coz of this assumption. He was ridiculed for not being able to spin the ball away – but he went on & on & on.

The cricket folklore always reminds us of Tendulkar’s last over against South Africa in the Hero Cup semifinal. Kumble scalped 6/12 in the final against West Indies – the West Indies didn’t know what hit’em and before they knew it was all over! Kumble never did get the attention that Tendulkar did.

Remember Azaruddin? His blitzkrieg against SA in the Kolkata test. Well Kumble made a neat and fighting 88 there. It was his highest score till he made a century on a trip in England recently – when no other Indian reached the 3 figure mark through out the tour! When Kumble raised his bat I couldn’t stop admiring this man, it just felt so great. Where has been the recognition that he deserved - probably he deserved far more than any of the Fab four!

He was dropped from the One day side unceremoniously – Gosh – he was India’s highest wicket-taker in the 50-over format too! They questioned his legs and body. How could they? In Antigua, in 1999, wasn’t it Kumble who bowled with a broken jaw – against the physician’s advice to earn India a win? He scalped Brian Lara that day and almost got Carl Hooper too – it was off a no-ball sadly. He couldn’t get India to win but that incident remains etched in my memory for ever and I would rank it higher than a troubled (owing to his back pain) Tendulkar’s 136 against Pakistan at Chennai.

Finally he was made the captain; we said it is a retrograde step. Derision took over. Old guy? But then he started the downfall of the invincible Australians. The derision for his captaincy continued till he called it quits. He is too old, a wearing body? When all Indians were dropping catches just yesterday, Kumble ran more than 20 feet and caught one between his injured fingers. Dare say too old?

But he has called it quits today. In the interview he said he is still learning to spin the ball – oops – how would one explain the 619 wickets then? Ah less than Warnie – but boy Warnie never had a test century against his name! I wonder what would have happened if Kumble did spin the ball! How would one explain the 10/74, which only one another bowler in the history of cricket had ever achieved.

We knew he would have gone away – sooner than later – but why were we after his head?

To the greatest bowler India has ever had and to my favorite bowler of all times – I owe an apology for all the derision that I was also part of. I owe him a heartfelt gratitude. “Thank You Jumbo. I will miss you.” Till today I’ve never knew you were so important coz when you called it quits – I cried.