The Greatest Indian Match Winner

It is the character of a brave and resolute man not to be ruffled by adversity and not to desert his post

- Author : Cicero

I am too strong, I am too strong, I am too strong…. said Gerry Bertier in Remember the Titans… if ever any Indian cricketer were to say those words there ain’t no other more deserving man but Anil Jumbo Kumble !!!! Who without a trace of doubt remains Indian Cricket’s Greatest Match Winner Ever !!!!

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November 2nd 2008 was the last day Anil Kumble bowled for India. Kotla was the venue where he has had unbelievable success and that is where he called it a day. It was in Kotla in 1993 he made his comeback in the Indian team with 13 wickets in an Irani trophy match and since has been Indian Cricket’s biggest pillar. This is the very venue where he picked up the perfect 10 against Pakistan a rare feat so this is where it had to end.

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The body through many injuries and years of bowling probably tired and complaining but a heart so brave and young not listening, eventually decided that it was time to listen to the body. The loss of Anil is already being felt. His contribution to Indian cricket is immeasurable and is worth its weight in gold !!! Over the 18 years he played for India he played many roles for the Indian team.

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As a Bowler : Anil Kumble is a bowler who is always at the batsman with his nagging accuracy and subtle variations. He never tires and never gives up and wins the battles against the batsman who eventually are forced into the error by the accuracy and variations. Over the years he learnt more and added more variations to his bowling and succeeded overseas in countries like Australia, England to shut up his critics.

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As a Team mate : Anil Kumble as a team man is one whom Ganguly described

“ when the score is 250 for 1 and you are looking around the field, there is always Anil who looks you in the eye and is ready to bowl, no matter what the situation is .” – Sourav Ganguly

In Antigua  Anil was hit on his jaw and he had to get pins in his jaw and he was sitting in the dressing room watching. It suddenly seemed that if a spinner came on to bowl India might be able to win. This man gets his head all taped up and comes on to the field to bowl and picks up the wicket of Brian Lara of all people!!!! He bowled 14 overs with a broken jaw and that really speaks volumes of his commitment to the team.

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As an Opponent : Steve Waugh summed it up when he said that

“ This man is a amazing, he never tires and keeps coming stronger over after over. The unrelenting accuracy gets to you.” – Steve Waugh

He is one opponent all teams respect and fear, the team meetings are always spent upon discussing how to play Anil Kumble as an inswing bowler and not a leg spinner. Still he has 619 victims who couldn’t still figure him out. Also to be noted is the pressure he created to help wickets at the other end.

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As a Skipper : Not many thought Anil was captaincy material, infact he was a stop gap option to save Dhoni from the blushes that might occur in Australia. Anil was to be made the skipper, perhaps even a scape goat, but, Anil has an uncanny characteristic, he doesnt give up.

The team fought but lost in Melbourne, in Sydney India had Australia at the ropes with 70 odd for 5 when Symonds and Gilchrist got together, Symonds nicked Ishant to Dhoni and the nick was as huge as it could get, but Steve Bucknor didnt hear it. Symonds scored a 160+ and India lost the match in as ugly and as worst a manner possible, it was a heart breaking loss. Teams can wither away from such a stage, to get up and fight from there was seeming unlikely with the team headed for PERTH, the graveyard for teams from the subcontinent.

To galvanise the team from such a low point and not only compete but to beat the World Champions in their own den and to beat them so convincingly was no mean feat, the entire team reflected the steel of Anil. No brilliant individual performances but thorough team work ensured the Aussies were left wounded badly !!!!

The one thing most noticable in Anil’s tenure as Indian teams captain was the intensity the team showed on the field which still remains unmatched. Further proof of Anil’s prowess as a leader of men can be seen from the huge turn around in the fortunes of the Royal Challengers Bangalore team ever since he was handed over the reins of the team last year in South Africa.

Anil Kumble as skipper was most under utilised and we can now only wonder about what could have been !!

As an Indian Cricketer : He is the greatest Indian cricketer till date, unfortunately because Anil is not a batsman we don’t recognize his feats, however he single handedly won more Test Matches for us than anyone else. He made India the fort it was in the 90’s & early 2000. His partners kept changing but he was there through out. Be it his pairing with Maninder Singh, Ravi Shashtri or Rajesh Chauhan, Venkatpathy Raju or Nilesh Kulkarni, or Sairaj Bahutule or Harbhajan this longetivity just tells you how good this cricketer was. . Not to forget his fighting knocks as a batsman and his century at the Oval to top it all.

As a Man : The bravest, the most determined, with resolves of steel, most committed and the most humble at heart is the man that he is. He is so respected as not just a cricketer but also as a very humble human being and that is one of the reason things were taken up so seriously after Sydney when Anil famously said, “ Only one team was playing in the right spirit of the game.” I have never seen the Aussies react, and react in a manner where in they admonished their own team and their own captain.

No subcontinental team has won a Test Match in Perth. But Anil as Captain has a victory there !!!

There are so many highlights in his great cricketing career its impossible to pen them all down in one small piece. Be it the 3-0 whitewash of England in 1993 or the Hero-Cup victory where he bamboozled the Windies. The perfect 10 wickets in Pakistan or the top spinners in Headingly or the googlies in Adelaide and Perth he has been truly amazing over the 18 years he gave to Indian cricket and Indian cricket is forever indebted to the man. For me Anil has been the finest example of an Indian Cricketer who was willing to give his all for the team and fight for the team till his last breath. Anil simply will always be remembered as the Greatest Indian Match Winner Ever !!!!

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This entry is posted as a part of the Contest by BlogAdda.com

pics courtest : google images

Whirlwind… a happy one this…

 

Dont know where to start so I will start from the beginning…

 

Pixie told me there was a blogger that the Bangalore IPL team needed and that I should apply and that started the whirlwind time I had over the last fortnight….

 

I always have been blessed with the best of friends in my life and that belief of mine got further re-assurance as I went about trying to garner votes…. and references… !!!! I feel blessed and am thrilled to know how much you all love me and I cant explain how much it means to me… words arent enough…

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okay… so after being first not selected and than being selected…

 

I finally was to fly to Bangalore.. but as things would have it… things got complicated as yours truly smartly refused to reach a day earlier in Bangalore where they were providing me with a night stay and instead went for own accomodation in Mumbai and fly via mumbai the day of the contest…

 

soon enough flight to bangalore from Mumbai got cancelled and … phew… i was suddenly worried… but they were good… they arranged for a flight to Goa and then from there to Bangalore…

 

As luck would have it… my flight from Indore was 2 hours late.. the weather gods in Bombay (or do I call it Mumbai) decided to play havoc… so instead of reaching at 9.20 I reached 11.40… we circled the mumbai airport for about half an hour and saw horrific lightning from our windows in the aircraft and completely understood the delays…

 

so i dropped the plan of going to my relatives house… coz the flight to Goa was at 5 am… !!!! I instead stuck around the airport lounge near a mobile charging station… I feared if I checked in some hotel and overslept and missed my flight… sigh…

 

Next day morning our flight left on time and I was trying to find the two girls who were to join me from mumbai… couldnt recognise any… infact one of them looked a lil familiar and I went across and asked her if she was

“Disha.. ??”

She looked up and said… “Sorry ?”

I said, “its ok.. I m sorry i mistook you for someone else..”

She smiled very warmly and said, “No problems at all.”

I smiled and left.. she was very pretty… !!!! sigh…

 

neways our flight was supposed to land in Goa at 6… but sigh… Goa had heavy rains… visibility was poor… twice the pilot tried only to go up again from 400 meters… !!! one of them was a really jerky push up and it was evident everyone had their marbles in their mouth… but they all said a silent prayer… the pilot announced that they will try one more time… that visibility is bad… finally at the third attempt we landed at 6.30 and immediately there was a huge applause by all the passengers for the pilot and thats when I realised that actually everyone was nervous… and not just me… !!!!!

 

and the pilot announced in my 30 years of flying I have had only 3-4 such rare dangerous landings… !!!!

He added,” I am as happy as anyone of you to be on the ground !!”

 

Boy were we happy !!!!!!!

 

Next problem… Goa flights take off were being delayed… !!!! Just then my wife called me and told me… seems your on a mission impossible… all sorts of problems happening… I pray to God you reach Bangalore on time…

 

and lo…

 

The weather clears… and we take off at 9 and reach Bangalore at 10.45 me thinks… phew… the weather was good and though Bangalore looked flooded for the time we were to land it was sunny… !!!!

 

Finally I am in Bangalore and off to the stadium…. we 6 people are received with two Innova’s and suddenly you feel oh.. ok… this is something special… !!!!

 

as we reached Chinnasamy stadium… the guards opened doors for us and welcomed us as if we were VIP’s !!!!! that special feeling…!!! as we went inside… the chief blogger of RCB Nidhi inquired how was the flight in goa et all and I am bemused… how does she know… and then she told me she follows me on twitter… !!!! Again felt good for everyone to be asking if all was well… !!!!!

 

Now the only bad thing to happen was after they took my t-shirt size… still they didnt have a my size ka t-shirt and I had to wear a undersized one… thats the only disadvantage of reaching late… !!! but neways… !!!

 

We were given a task to write a post on Captaincy of Anil Kumble…

 and given a post of 1700 words which we were to edit and also add our bit to it and finish in 500 words… !!!

 :roll: how do you edit and also add to a perfectly written article… sigh…

 

Anyways all done and I was pretty satisfied… !!! then we had lunch but I was uninterested and even though they served chicken I only ate rice and daal and a few papad’s… my attention was else where… we were to meet Anil.. !!! all the photographers had gone to a match where they were playing… while we were sitting in the press box blogging like real journalists… !!!! I realised I didnt feel hungry or nervous nothing… I was feeling confident of what I had written… !!!

 

then we had a quiz as we all waited Anil to come and when the quiz ended they said he was waiting up there and team one went for the interview while we Team-2 were to wait outside… !!!! The team 1′s interview went long.. almost 20 mins.. one of the fan even sang for Anil… !!!!!!

 

While I stood out there watching from the glass I could see Anil and thats when I realised how big it was… how huge a fan I was of this man… the face looks so familiar… yet… I could hear my heart pounding… I started realising something big…

 

when we went in there we all shook hands… and sat… one of the judges… Sajal Banerjee was supposed to ask me major questions… while Anil was to ask the photographer and Ray Jennings to ask major questions to the fan… !!!!! I was just simply not able to come to terms at watching Anil… somehow I was just simply gaping… !!!!!! yes I was… and he looks amazingly young… by no stretch of imagination he looks 38 … he infact looks younger than me… and I am 7 years younger to him… and if you know me… you know how much I hate saying this… but he really looked a lot more younger… !!!!!!! seriously !!!!!!

 

The interview went flat… over in about 6-7 minutes and I knew the moment the questions shifted from me to the photographer that I didnt impress… Anil’s expression told me clearly that he wasn’t impressed… he didnt ask me much and  I somehow knew it was all over… then again while we left we shook hands… in between once I was talking about Anil he said maybe your praising me coz I am sitting here… !!!! sigh…

 

How would I convince him that even if he were thousands of miles away I would still be praising him… not just him but all Indian team players…

 

After the interview was done I was pretty much sure I wasnt going to make it and I got a call from Sujith and you can read the encounter there after over at his post…

 

I must say this but… I felt as if I knew Pixie for as long as I can remember… there was no hesitation while meeting her or talking to her… or even slapping at her hand to disconnect her call with her friend… !!!! We giggled the time away… !!!!!! Sujith whom I only came to know a few days back seemed a warm person !!!! jovial and funny toooo !!! and it was unfair on pixie’s part to not hug him… !!!!!

 

It was great fun meeting you guys and you guys never let me feel disappointed for a second that I lost…!!!!!!

 

After the results were announced we were gifted a ball autographed by Anil… which I was for a minute tempted to gift to Pixie but my greed prevailed… !!! lol

 

While the results were announced I somehow didnt feel any anticipation as I somehow knew I wasnt gonna win… I just applauded for the guy who infact was my favourite among the 8 competitors… I infact mentioned to my wife the day earlier and to crafty too… that this guy is good… !!! and so I must say he was deserving too… he had a lovely sense of humour along with cricket while writing which I observed… !!!

 

As we waited for our cab to leave and while pixie was tickling and troubling me suddenly one of the judges Sajal Banerjee came and told me… hey you were close and you lost by just one point… only thing we thought you lacked was you didnt interact with Anil too much… !!!

 

I was like its ok… I didnt know I was to speak too much… maybe the cat caught my tongue at the sight of the Champion who has been a huge hero all my life… !!!!!

 

It was great to know I was so close and that I wasn’t bad… he said, “I loved your style of writing, but we wanted someone who interacts more.. coz if you wouldnt speak to the players how would you get material to blog about… !!”

 

Sigh for once Hitchy didnt be his hyper self and it cost him….

 

The day was a roller coaster… !!! but a great experience and enjoyed every moment almost all the contestants were quite warm and friendly and there was no animosity which was such a lovely thing. I would like to say I was a winner… I loved the whole experience and it was great fun !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

So shall we start dancing friends… coz with you all on my side… I can never ever be a loser… !!!!!!!!!

 

and heres a pic for you all.

 

 

and here is the autographed ball Anil gave me… and hey I took this pic… tell me its nice…

 

 

 

Loads of other pics have been loaded in Facebook and in Royal Challengers Website also there are video’s of the winners being declared on their site. Click here to see them..  I am visible in the second video.. !!!!

The race to the top !!!!!

 

The lions have aged and retired… the cubs still to mature into lions… the territory is up for grabs… Every week there is a new number one in the rankings these days… these indeed are exciting times for cricket and the top of the table was never as open as now…

 

Australia is no longer the powerhouse it used to be, their aura of invincibility shattered. The 6-0 series lead notwithstanding the fear of the Kangaroos is gone… The Indians defeated them 2-0 in 2008 in India which incidentally was their worst defeat in 25 years. The South Africans beat them in their own den. The top spot in all forms of the game is open for all and there is going to be an interesting race in the coming two years which will firmly establish who is the best. The Sri Lankans are the only other team that may harbour any such aspirations of trying to contest this claim of the top team in the world but for that their overseas record needs to improve.

 

That leaves us with two contenders, the Proteas and the Indians.

 

The Proteas have always been a bunch of hardened cricketers who always give their best however they have always been humiliated time and again by the Aussies and even though they beat the Aussies in their backyard for the first time last year the Aussies promptly exacted their revenge. Over a period they have never matched up against Australia and so we need to see if they can do this over a consistent period of time. The one problem South Africa face is their selection policy with quota’s and second their over dependence on just seam bowling. However the emergence of Johan Botha and Paul Harris augurs well for them. They have some exciting youngsters and it will be interesting times for them as they seem to have finally got the Australian monkey over their back.

 

However lets take a look at India’s fortunes more closely…  

 

India started playing test cricket in 1932 and from then to the November of the year 2000 India had won just 13 Test matches abroad. We always had a couple of stylish batsmen and a bunch of excellent spinners with maybe a seamer thrown in here and there. However the true test of a cricket team is when they go abroad and it is only fair to say we had an abysmal record. We were favourite whipping boys when we travelled abroad.

 

But in November 2000 Sourav Ganguly was handed the reins of Indian cricket while it was probably at its nadir with the match fixing controversy. Under him a group of youngsters gathered, he along with Sachin, Rahul, Anil and Laxman have laid a great platform ahead. The new crop of youngsters have tasted success very early in their careers and the fearlessness that we see in the Sehwag’s, Yuvraj’s, Zaheer’s and Bhajji’s can be attributed to this early success in their careers. Sourav Ganguly injected a steel in Indian Cricket which was missing, this led to the change of attitude and a team that used to dread going abroad suddenly was raring to go abroad.

 

The talent apart the sudden transformation of Indian cricketers under Sourav’s leadership where they would stare the opponent in the eye and not blink and the tendency to give back as good as they got or even better then what they got has gone a long way in helping India building a fearless image in the cricket world. They psychologically even disintegrated  the father (Tugga – Steve Waugh) of this theory called Psychological Disintegration 

 

India started playing test cricket in 1932 and from then to the November of the year 2000 India had won just 13 Test matches abroad.Quite amazingly since November 2000 when Sourav became captain to today India has won 19 Test Matches Abroad including series wins in England, West Indies, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. They also were leading in Test series in South Africa and Australia but eventually squandered the lead.

 

 

 

Mindset has changed today when India travel’s abroad it goes with a belief that they can win. The main reason behind this has to be the amazing bench strength of fast bowlers to choose from provided they all are fit. Ishant Sharma is already the envy of all cricketing nations. Zaheer at the peak of his career and they are well supported by Ashish Nehra, R. P. Singh and Sree Santh. They have back up and even in the domestic structure there are still quite a few who can make the cut like Sudeep Tyagi, Munaf Patel & Irfan Pathan to just name a few. These fast bowlers are a big reason why India is starting to win tests and for a change we don’t have just one or two fast bowlers like a Kapil here and a Srinath there… we have 4-5 bowlers and that is the most heartening thing.

 

 

The batting line up is as awesome as it can ever get. Today arguably we possess the most explosive opening pair in Tests in Sehwag and Gautam followed by ever solid Rahul Dravid, the never ageing Sachin and the elegant Laxman. The best part is this doesn’t end here, we have Yuvraj who can be mercurial on this day and Dhoni a player who can easily be in any Test Team in the world just for his batting. The prescence of the youngsters like Rohit Sharma, Uthappa, Virat Kohli, Raina, Yusuf Pathan can only be a blessing.

 

 

The spin department is also well taken care of with Harbhajan, Amit Mishra & Pragyan Ojha. Thanks to the IPL the Indian domestic players will receive a lot of encouragement and also exposure to top flight cricket. It also means a lot more cricketers can now harbour living life simply playing domestic cricket even if they don’t get to play for India coz they can earn enough. More cricketers could only be a blessing.

 

 

In the coming two years India will have to stake their claim for the top spot, the race is tight between Australia who are undergoing transition, South Africa who are at their peak probably and India who have consistently given Australia a run for their money and beaten them on several occasions for almost a decade that too while Shane Warne and Mcgrath were playing.

 

 

Under Mahendra Singh Dhoni we have a skipper who will have to carry on the good work started by Sourav and place India on a pedestal befitting its following… the interesting times they say are just beginning… The Champions trophy will be ideal place to start this new season and a victory in all the matches should put us on top of the ODI rankings….

 

Quite interestingly since the 2006 Champions trophy India has won 11 out of the 17 ODI tournaments it has played and we currently have won 6 ODI series on the trot. Is Champions trophy going to be the 7th on the trot ????

 

Tighten your seat belt folks !!! Its gonna be a helluva interesting period for Indian fans to watch…

 

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Last but not the least… please remember to Vote for me HERE for the blogger job challenge.

6 days remain… there are lots of contestants… !!! VOTES NEEDED !!!!