Midway into the last session of play of third Test, the press box had been thrown into a state of utter disorder by the revelation, on television, that Anil Kumble was set to take his last bow at the Ferozeshah Kotla, a second home to him.
Late on the fourth day, yesterday, a deep gash in his left hand bound by 11 stitches, Kumble had bounded to behind the wicket and caught Mitchell Johnson off his own bowling; that done, he glowered-- at either the wicket or the pitch or the batsman -- and, his features distorted by fury, threw the ball at the wicket.Square-jawed, mean-eyed, Kumble looked the sort of man you'd prefer to avoid in a dark street. That moment, evocative of his brand of cricket, full of passion and effort, would have been an apt final act in his remarkable career.
It was not so, for Kumble declared the Indian innings -- for no cricketing reason -- and allowed himself the final indulgence of a last bowl at the Kotla wicket. His final delivery in international cricket was a full-toss patted down to the straight boundary by Matthew Hayden -- not really representative of the way the great man played his cricket.
But perhaps no one must grudge Kumble, the greatest matchwinner in Indian cricket history, his decision to choose the manner and time of his exit; before the series started, he had said that he's not the sort of man to announce his retirement before a series; after Bangalore, in an angry outpour of words in his newspaper column, he declared that he'd chose to retire at a time of his own choosing. But he could not retire on his own terms. The captain's hand was forced by injury, though not by much in temporal terms -- he later said that he anyway would probably have retired after the final Test at Nagpur.
When he spoke to the media, Kumble was gracious and generous, clearly a man who recognises that his critics (of recent times, especially) were just doing their job. He said he's not been doing well in recent times, in the "last five-six Test matches". He said he has no regrets, for he believes he's gonefarther than he could have dreamed of when he started.
Kumble also said that he's still "trying to find out I can bowl leg spin". That was a gentle barb, made harmless by a big grin, at folks who haven't been able to come to terms with the fact that here was a leg-spinner who was different. His 619 Test wickets -- 288 of them in India's 43 wins at an average of 18.75 -- haven't been enough to convince those who wanted him to spin the ball like Shane Warne. Kumble said he's been preyed by doubt -- of his watchers, not his own -- at both the start and end of his career. "This criticism started 18 years ago, when people said I couldn't play two Test matches for India. I've done pretty well, looking back," Kumble said.
Earlier in the day, when his closest mates weren't aware of his decision, we were discussing what the man meant for India. If one wicket is worth 25 runs, then he's got over 15,000 Test runs, said someone -- a statement on how we love batsmen more than bowlers.
Kumble's worth was beyond numbers, though -- few have been Indian captains in recent past whose reputation was enhanced to such a degree by captaincy. He took it when no one seemed to want it, he essayed the role of the elder statesman to perfection, his finest moment coming earlier this year at Sydney and then the triumph at Perth.
Thereafter, though, things became difficult. Form and fitness deserted him. In Bangalore, the way he tried to get one wicket, just one wicket, made a sad, even depressing sight. We want our champions to be champions right to the end -- the catch he took yesterday, the feral anger that boiled over the surface, gave us a final sight of a great cricketer playing the role that's his. That's a memory we must cherish.
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Also See: RahulDravid on Anil Kumble
