Anil Kumble

Anil Kumble is a former Indian international cricketer known for his right arm leg spin. He was the Head Coach of the Indian National Cricket Team until the ICC Champions Trophy 2017. The former captain has a record of 619 wickets in test cricket, the highest by any Indian and third highest in the world. He is also called as ‘Jumbo’ and he is the fourth Indian cricketer to be inducted in the ICC Hall of Fame. The Bengaluru born cricketer made his test as well as One Day International (ODI) debut in 1990 and has represented the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League. After retiring from IPL in 2012, he held the position of Chief Mentor of RCB and later became the Chief Mentor of Mumbai Indians. He was appointed as the Chairman of International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Cricket Committee in October 2012.

Anil Kumble was born to Krishna Swamy and Saroja Kumble on October 17, 1970, in Bengaluru. After completing his primary education from Holy Saint English High School, he completed his schooling and pre university college education from National High School in Basavanagudi, Bengaluru. He went on to graduate with a B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from Rashtreeya Vidyalaya College of Engineering in 1992. Kumble had interest in cricket since childhood and started to play cricket in streets. At the age of 13 he joined a club called “Young Cricketers”.  During his engineering days, he made his first class debut playing for Karnataka in 1989 and in the debut match against Hyderabad he took four wickets in the match and made a noticeable performance. He was then selected by the Indian selectors for the U-19 series against Pakistan and in the series he made an impact with his batting too and scored 113 runs in the first test and 76 runs in the second test match. The Indian selectors were impressed by his performance and selected him to debut for the ODI.

Anil Kumble made his ODI debut on 25th April, 1990 and played his debut match against Sri Lanka in the Australia-Asia Cup. In the series, Kumble was selected for a match against Pakistan and he was successful in picking up two wickets. In the same year, Kumble was selected for the India's Tour of England for a three test series and in the second test he played, he bagged 3 wickets in the first innings of the match. Kumble, however, was not able to create any lasting imapct in the remaining series adn was dropped from the team till 1992. Not playing for the National Team did not de-spirit him and he continued to concentrate on his game in the domestic cricket. Finally he was noticed again after his performance of 13/138 against Delhi in the 1992 Irani Trophy. The excellent performance helped him getting selected in the South Africa and ZimbabwesSeries. It was an uphill climb for him after that. He was widely acknowledged for his performance in South Africa and he took 18 wickets in four test matches at an average of 25.94. Later in the England Tour, he took 21 wickets at an average of 19.8 and was also declared as the Man of the Match for his performance in the third test of the series where he picked up seven wickets. He made the record of taking 50 wickets in 10 matches and took 100 wickets in 21 matches, the second fastest by any Indian bowler.

Kumble played the 1995 English Cricket Season for Northamptonshire and was the only player to take more than 100 wickets in the season. He was named one of the five cricketers of the year in 1996. He was the leading wicket taker of 1996 with 90 wickets at an average of 24.14 (Test and ODI wickets combined). He was also a part of the 1996 World Cup and played all the matches. The next record that Kumble shares with Jim Laker of England is to take all the ten wickets in a Test Innings and he achieved this against Pakistan in February 1999. His performance was rated as the "Best bowling performance of all time" by Wisden. On 6^th October 2004, he became the third spinner in the history of the game to have reached the mark of capturing 400 wickets. He is the second Indian after Kapil Dev to achieve this mark and on 10^th December, he became the highest wicket taker in India and surpassed Kapil Dev's 434 wickets record. On 11^th March 2006, he took his 500th Test Wicket to become the fourth highest wicket taker in test match. After India returned from the 2007 World Cup, Anil Kumble declared his retirement from ODI cricket on 30 March 2007. He was declared as the Indian Captain for test team in 2007 after Rahul Dravid resigned from the post. Under his captaincy, India won 1-0 against Pakistan and lost 1-2 against Australia. Kumble also performed with bat and on 10^th August 2007 he scored his maiden century with a 110 not out against England. Kumble dismissed Vaughan as his 563^rd Test wicket to reach McGrath's record, later by dismissing Monty Panesar he overtook McGrath and became the third highest wicket taker after Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne. He reached the milestone of 600 wickets on 17^th January 2008 and he took these 600 wickets in 124 matches at an average of 28.68. Kumble retired from Test cricket in November 2008 and then Mahendra Singh Dhoni was declared as the test captain.

Kumble is married to Chethana Kumble and the couple has a son Mayas Kumble and daughter Svasti Kumble. One of the main roads in Karnataka was renamed as Anil Kumble Road and it was inaugurated by Anil Kumble himself. He has been honoured with the "Best Breakthrough Performance in IPL 2009" after his five wickets for five runs performance against Rajasthan Royals.  For his brilliant career in Indian cricket, Anil Kumble has been rewarded with many awards and nominations. In the yer 1995, he received the Arjuna Award from Indian Government and he was also included as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1996. In 2005, he received Padma Shri, a civilian award by the Indian Government and was included in ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2015.