Kumble a reluctant player in fame game (9 February 1999)

9 February 1999

Kumble a reluctant player in fame game

By Peter Deeley in Delhi

ANIL KUMBLE awoke yesterday to discover that in a few hours his life had changed beyond recall, but he is uncertain how much he will enjoy an existence in the proverbial goldfish bowl.

The 10 wickets he took to bowl out Pakistan in the second Test have turned him into an overnight sensation in a country which deifies sportspeople.

The 28-year-old graduate of mechanical engineering, who still lives at home in Bangalore with his mother when he is not on the cricket circuit, has seen at first hand the price paid for fame.

"I know what Sachin Tendulkar goes through and I pity him for it. I know this is what you have to put up with but I would still prefer to lead a low-profile private life," he said.

Kumble had his first taste of the down side of all this acclamation after the game when he was virtually manhandled on his way into a press conference and then again when he went to board the team coach.

Yet he took it all good-naturedly and seemed to want to praise everybody for his achievement except himself. He felt particularly sorry for Javagal Srinath, who was instructed by India captain Mohammad Azharuddin to bowl wide of the stumps when nine Pakistan wickets were down.

Kumble's hotel room the morning after resembled something of the bombshell he let loose on Pakistan. The bed was littered with telegrams and messages and he has been given an award of £1,500 by his home state. But he still found time to ring his mother, who watched his achievement on television.

For Kumble - who bowls in contact lenses - the most difficult moment was just before tea when he had taken six wickets but Wasim and Salim Malik were becoming entrenched.

"I felt tired and was beginning to give away runs. The break came just at the right moment. I did some stretching in the dressing-room and took some liquid. It helped me to get back my strength and focus on the job ahead."

Although Kumble says he realises it has changed the way people look to him, he hopes they will not expect miracles. "Cricket is the kind of game where you can't afford to become complacent. You must always be on your toes and when we go to Calcutta next week to play Pakistan again, the first ball up I shall be starting afresh."

Australia's Shane Warne described his fellow legspinner's 10-wicket haul as a triumph for one of the "nice blokes" of international cricket. And Warne's team-mate, Stuart MacGill, another leg-spinner, said: "It doesn't surprise me because he's a very devastating bowler, but it does surprise me that no one else took a wicket."

Kumble, a veteran of 51 Tests with 234 wickets, still remembers his first as if it were yesterday. "It was in England in 1990. Allan Lamb was caught off the gloves at silly point by Sanjay Manjrekar. The ball popped out of his hand but he held it."

Since then he has seen the game change radically and attributes that largely to the influence of one-day cricket. "Batsmen are more attacking. They have learnt new shots and are equipped with better bats.

"So spinners have had to adapt, too. They have had to become more restrictive in their flight and look for wickets in the close catching positions."

Kumble looked at the rain falling outside. Another hour on Sunday and Pakistan might have saved this match and he might still have a semblance of privacy.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)