MUMBAI: Parting is such a sweet sorrow. This Shakespearean refrain could well be echoed by the senior players in the Indian cricket team. Two have already announced their protracted retirement and three others could well be pondering, even harder than before, as to when to call it quits.
When performances begin to pick up again, the decision over retirement starts to totter. In this regard, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman may justify their staying on for some more time. But Rahul Dravid would certainly be under tremendous pressure to hold his place in the team.
“The Wall” definitely the fittest amongst the fab five, is in such poor form that he is considered a road block in the path of a deserving youngster. One would like to see him going out in glory and not as a shooting star. There can never be two opinions that Anil Kumble is one of the all-time greats of Indian cricket and, in world context, amongst the greatest of bowlers — only two others, Muralitharan and Shane Warne, have taken more wickets than him in Test history. It was indeed sad to see him go the way he did.
Getting over the emotions of the moment, it must be said that his retirement could not have come a day too soon. Most critics believed that it was long overdue. Finally, two successive injuries forced the decision on him. According to his original plan, he was to have carried on until the end of the forthcoming series against England. But that was not to be.
Kumble’s going out is certainly going to now make for a better team balance. As it was, two leg-spinners in the team had restricted the options. Not surprisingly, therefore, that when Kumble was on the field, young Amit Mishra was under-bowled.
Now, the Indian team would once again get a more pro-active and attacking captain in Mahendra Singh Dhoni. It was under the positive-thinking Dhoni that India had won its only Test in the current series. With due respects to Kumble, it must be mentioned that he had an ultra-defensive approach to captaincy.
Example: With a mountain of 613 runs as a buffer, Kumble placed just two slips and more fielders in the deep when Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma started the new-ball attack. This approach provoked adverse comments from the TV experts. “What! Is he trying to draw the match?” was Sunil Gavaskar’s sarcastic remark.
After all, everyone thinks of the best that can be done for the sake of the team. No disrespect is meant to anyone if one is to be brutally frank.
