It was a shocker that many were expecting. But the way in which it came was something that was not expected. Anil Kumble; The Jumbo of the Indian cricket team, the captain, the numero uno among Indian bowlers and one of the most committed players the world has ever seen retired from international cricket yesterday at perhaps his favorite hunting ground AKA Ferozshah Kotla. The real Man of the Indian team, Kumble epitomizes every quality one can dream of in a cricketer as well as a person and he has shown it time and again. Bowling with a fractured jaw, bowling with 11 stitches on your hand and taking a splendid running catch off your own bowling are just a few of the tips of the iceberg that signifies the performance of this great man. He stood tall for 18 years in the cricket team and has been notably absent from the controversies. The silent assassin went on with the tasks at hand for these many years and without any pomp and show, created a mountain of wickets that stands as the highest in India and the third highest in the world and to think that he reached his 50 wickets marks in just his 10th match goes to show the caliber that he possesses. Add to that a Test century and you wonder what you are staring at! Even in his last test, he scored a healthy 45 which is a pretty nice score for a person that holds the record for the most wickets by an Indian bowler. Being the only Indian to have taken 10 wickets in an innings, Anil Kumble stitched together a test squad that has grown by leaps and bounds under his short stint as captain. There are people who shout at the top of their voice amongst each other to make their opinions known and there are people who fight for their voices to be heard. But there are people who resort to no such forms. When they talk, everyone listens. Jumbo starts this list and mind you, only a very select number of individuals make it to this list. The Indian fans will miss this great man for ages to come and it will be indeed a mountain of a task to find a replacement for such a player. Regrettably, he will not be seen in action at Nagpur but we will be seeing another final show in the form of Sourav Ganguly who takes on the Aussies for one final battle at the brand new VCA stadium.
