Spinning into Hall of Fame

Cricket : Anil Kumble says it was a huge challenge to prove he was good enough in a world that had the likes of Warne and Muralitharan

Anil Kumble has become only the fourth Indian cricketer after Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Bishan Singh Bedi to be inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame. The former India skipper will be formally handed over the cap in a brief ceremony before the start of the India-South Africa World Cup match at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday.

The ace leg-spinner finished his career with 619 wickets in Tests, the third highest behind Muttiah Muralitharan (800) and Shane Warne (708), and 337 in ODIs. Often hailed the greatest match winner for India, Kumble shared the experiences of an eventful journey that lasted 18 years in top-flight cricket. Excerpts.  

Your finest hour as a captain came here in Australia in Perth in 2008 series. Does it feel special that you receive this Hall of Fame award in Australia?

Receiving the Hall of Fame award in a world event makes it even more special. ICC World Cup is something that millions watch, millions follow, and to receive that honour here at the MCG in an India-South Africa game, I think, is something really special.

I know that probably 80 percent of the crowd will be Indian, so it will be great to receive it in front of ‘home’ crowd and in a big event. I was really fortunate that I was able to captain the country, although it came right at the end of my career, but that was very special.

Hall of Fame is a bigger tradition in American sport. How important is it for cricket?

Everyone knows about it in American sport, whereas in cricket I think it's only been a recent phenomenon. But I am hopeful that one day there will be a Hall of Fame museum across the world, especially the ICC countries, wherever we play cricket.

Growing up, it'll be a great thing for everyone to look up to, and for me, I had my own heroes, coming from Bangalore, I looked up to G R Viswanath, B S Chandrashekhar, E A S Prasanna… So for me looking up to them and reading about them was a great moment and then eventually I was picked as an under-15 boy with Chandrashekhar as the coach. That was the first time I ever met a legend, and for me to be under his tutelage for about a month was very special. So that remains with me forever, because of that possibly one month of him coaching me helped my cricketing career.

Apart from the 10-wicket haul (against Pakistan), which is your best performance according to you?

I gave batting a lot of importance in the nets, but for me, the standout performance will always be the 10-wicket haul, and also the 2003-2004 series when I toured Australia. It was a big turning point in my career because just before that or even during that series, there was a lot of feeling amongst a lot of people back home that I was finished, so it was very critical for me to come here and then do what I could do.

That series was probably the turning point of the second innings of my international career, of my Test career. I think those three Test matches that I played here were extremely important for me individually and also the way we played helped Indian cricket move forward, and I think that was a turning point for me.

Talk about your partnership with Harbhajan Singh…

I think it was a great partnership right throughout with my fellow spinning colleagues -- Venkatapathi Raju, Rajesh Chauhan, Narendra Hirwani and Sunil Joshi later on. Bhajji, of course, close to 10 years we played together. And sometimes we competed against each other, so that was a bit of a challenge.

Whenever we toured abroad where they could only accommodate one spinner, so it was always either him or me, so that was a bit of a tough ask. But I never felt that it was a competition. Yes, competition in the sense it was very healthy, so I never felt jealous or anything of that sort, saying, ‘okay, I should be playing’. I enjoyed the partnership because I believe that spinners, like fast bowlers, hunt in pairs.

What kind of competition you had with Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan?

I don't know whether I looked at it as a competition, but I could never compete with a Murali or a Shane Warne. I wish I had the skills that they had. That's something which I always, well not regret, I tried.

I tried to bowl genuine leg spinners, tried classical leg spinners like Warney did, had great chats with him when we toured Australia or when they came to India, whenever we had the opportunity to sit and chat. So I've had some great friendships with Warney and even more with Murali because we played a lot more. It was always a healthy friendship that we had, and it still continues. I'm really glad that I was able to play in the same era.

When did you sense that your team started to look at you as the go-to bowler, as the match-winner?

I thought the team started looking at me possibly after the England series in 1993, so it was pretty early in my career, and I was surprised that even after being dropped in 2002-03, when I came back into the team, people still expected me to win matches! I couldn't seriously figure this logic out. But I guess that was what was expected of me, and I was glad that I was able to meet my own expectations.

Personally, yes, as a team I would have loved to be a part of a winning World Cup team, although we finished second in 2003, but I was glad that some of my colleagues who played with me were able to achieve that in 2011, and I was there watching the game. That will be the one regret from a team's perspective.

How important was it to be yourself and to believe in your own style?

It was a huge challenge because ultimately everyone was looking at orthodox leg-spin and comparing me with orthodox leggies. That comparison remained right through my career. It was a huge challenge for me to tell myself that I was good enough. I couldn’t go to too many people, whoever were coaches who were a part of the team… They would never come and tell me the arm is going like this or this is why you are not bowling well.

I had to learn as I was going along. I did give it a shot, when I was dropped in 1996, trying to bowl in a very orthodox way. I went to (former India leg-spinner) VV Kumar in Chennai for about a week. Then we had the Irani Cup game. I bowled with the changed action in the first innings, got four wickets. Got a couple caught at first slip, spun the ball.

There was pressure in the second innings, turning track, up and down, and I decided that this is what I am, I can’t be somebody else. If you want to play me fine, otherwise this is what I am.

I went about bowling the way I normally do. I picked up a seven-for and that’s when I told myself, this is how I will be. I will make those subtle changes but I can’t be a Shane Warne. It’s impossible.