His last ball was a full toss and was driven for four. Perhaps, just perhaps, Anil Kumble succumbed to emotion on the field. He was entitled to, of course. At 38, he had seen everything, heard everything and there was only one ambition left - to regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. That privilege, if it happens, will go to the new captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni who carried Kumble on his shoulders during part of a lap of honor after the Delhi Test. I can't remember an Indian player being given such a warm send-off by his teammates. Few players in the world garnered more respect than Kumble; few played with his combination of intense competitiveness and absolute fairness. He was tough but honest, and brought to everything he did a dignity and calmness that was remarkable. As captain, he did not hesitate from saying in Australia during the last series that “only one team” was playing cricket. The hit went home, and it was thanks to his integrity that any flare-up was avoided. He earned the respect of the cricketing world anew. Kumble played 132 Tests (only Sachin Tendulkar among Indians has played more), claimed 619 wickets, helped India win 43 Tests (20 more than the famous Spin Quartet of Prasanna, Bedi, Chandrasekhar and Venkatraghavan). His strike rate per Test, 4.69 wickets, is the best among Indians (Richie Benaud's is 3.93, Shane Warne's 4.88). He had a wicket every 65.5 deliveries, just ahead of Chandra. Benaud needed 77 deliveries and Derek Underwood 74. Clearly Kumble is one of the finest to have played the game. But he was more than his figures. He captained late in his career, but he was a major support to every captain who led India, from Kapil Dev to Rahul Dravid. He was more than a cricketer, he was an inspiration. For 19 years he had to hear stories about how he never turned a ball, never spun a googly extravagantly like Warne did - yet only two bowlers in the history of the game, Warne and Muthiah Muralitharan finished with more wickets. Surely he must have been doing something right. He was. He was learning all the time. As an engineer he knew all about angles; he knew that he needed only to beat the middle of the bat and do enough to take its edge - a matter of inches. He probably knew more about bowling than his contemporaries, because he had to teach himself as he went along. In his teens he was an off-spinner, then he bowled medium pace before his brother Dinesh suggested he bowl leg breaks. As an Under-19 player, he had a century against Pakistan, and played that series as a middle order batsman. Within a season he was bowling to the English batsmen at Old Trafford in 1990, the same match which saw Tendulkar's first century. His ten wickets in an innings (he and Jim Laker are the only two bowlers to pull off this unbeatable feat in the history of Test cricket), his role in India's wins at home and later abroad, his century in England two years ago, his haul of wickets are all records that will remain for a long, long time. But Kumble's legacy will be equally a tough-mindedness that is unusual among Indian sportsmen; he did not lack the killer instinct. Six years ago in the West Indies, he bowled with a broken jaw - surely one of cricket's most inspiring sights. He even dismissed Brian Lara. The smile which had been missing in the last few innings as Kumble struggled to regain his touch, returned after he announced his decision at the Kotla, his favorite ground. Kumble is not a uni-dimensional man, with no life beyond cricket. He can now spend time with his young family, and give more time to his passion for photography and environmental concerns. He said he would go when the time was right - but the inevitability of his farewell does not make it easier to bear. __
