Jumbo Take's Off

Anil Kumble announced his retirement from test cricket today. Over a career spanning 18 years and multiple generations of cricketers, Kumble has been India's greatest match winner. 18 years, 132 test matches, 40,850 deliveries and 619 wickets sums his efforts.

Always a gentleman, always giving 100%, a never-say-die warrior, a bowler with immense penetration with an incredible ability to fox the very best.

Over the years, the big man jumping in to his bowling stride and releasing the ball with a fire in his eyes and a determinedly set chin has been so much part of Indian cricket that now it seems as if an era is coming to a quick end. I am not even 30 years old, but somehow with the retirement of Kumble and Sourav's retirement coming up in next test in Nagpur, I feel much more older. I feel as if I am a grand dad who is going to miss all the glory days gone by and will always find fault with the 'new' in Indian cricket. In brief, I think I will be nostalgic. Perhaps the vacuum in my heart just reflects the vacuum in Indian cricket as a result of these greats going off into the dusk of their careers, one by one.

As a personal tribute to this gentle and devastating giants retirement I will try and put words which for me is Kumble: determined, clever, foxy, 100% cricketer, gentleman, delivers always.

Anil Kumble, Indian cricket, millions of Indian fans and world over will miss you. We will miss the assurance your name used to give us, that we have a chance at hitting at the core of the opposition, that we are sure to challenge the adversary, that no one can score against India in free domination, that we have Anil Kumble coming on: BEHOLD THE JUMBO!

A tribute to Anil Kumble: Jumbo