Kumble Goes the Dada Way: Calls It Quits After Delhi Test

Few expected this match to yield any other result besides a draw. But trust India’s leading leg spinner to throw a googly. Anil Kumble has not only decided to relinquish his captaincy but rather, has made the biggest shocking headline coming out of the Delhi Test and the Border Gavaskar Trophy itself.

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Even as matters in Delhi on the fifth and final day at the Feroz Shah Kotla turned into an academic charade, people were shaken out of the Sunday siesta somberness by the news that Anil Kumble had decided to quit all forms of international cricket at the end of this Test. It came rather ironically on the ground where Kumble picked up his ten wickets in an innings haul against Pakistan in 1999.

Even as a few cricket fans were still wondering if Dada had timed his retirement well given his spate of runs in this series and of how empty the field would look when India play England, the injury and now retirement of Kumble will already show, in the Nagpur Test for the first time, in nearly two decades, the first indicators that change has forced the landscape of the Indian cricket team to change as well.

What has prompted the Indian skipper to suddenly make this decision after vehemently admonishing the media for creating speculation around the seniors’ retirement is still unclear. What must have exacerbated the move must have also been his finger injury to his left hand that required eleven stitches. That did not stop Kumble from bowling his heart out on the fourth day as didn’t the jaw breaking episode in Antigua when he carried on with a fractured jaw.

Anil Kumble, a few days ago, was quick to deny that retirement was anywhere close to his mind and that he would be the best judge of when it would be time to go. His decision then comes on the heels of the ex-chairman of selectors, Dilip Vengsarkar, stating that Kumble had gone past his prime and the last six or seven Tests were indicative of the fact. Whether that comment was the last straw for the skipper tiring of taking the same question or whether he genuinely woke up feeling he had had enough will only become apparent in the days to come.

But the criticism and comparison changed quickly into praiseworthy eulogies as people could only think of the man's finest moments upon hearing of his announcement. Nothing, no matter the talk, logic and reason, could have prepared the cricket world for it. The crowd in the stadium was silenced in shock; the scoreboard was most neglected; the declaration was completely overshadowed, and the Indian cricket team itself seemed in a bit of a stunned appraisal taking the field.

While there is no denying Anil’s tall order of feats, the decline was becoming apparent and the criticism that followed in its aftermath was perhaps unnerving even on the likes of Sachin Tendulkar. If Sachin Tendulkar thought that Sourav Ganguly’s decision to retire came as a shock to him, there is no undermining how the team would have felt upon learning of the skipper’s decision. Ian Chappell stated last week in his column that India were playing it defensive by denying Mahendra Singh Dhoni to lead the team. Kumble has now hastened the decision and the responsibility for the young wicket keeper and the one day international captain.