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Anil Kumble (; born 17 October 1970) is a former Indian cricketer, captain, coach and commentator who played Test cricket and One Day International cricket for his national team over an international career of 18 years. A right-arm leg spin bowler, regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in cricket history, he took 619 in Test cricket and was the third-highest wicket taker of all time at the time of his retirement in 2008.
Born in Bangalore, Mysore State (now Karnataka), Kumble developed an early interest in cricket as he grew up watching players like B. S. Chandrasekhar before becoming a full-fledged cricketer. He made his first-class debut at the age of 19 while representing Karnataka. Soon he was picked up for the Austral-Asia Cup in 1990 before making his Test debut against England later that year. Since then, he played 132 Test matches and was responsible for many of India's victories. In 1999, while playing against Pakistan, Kumble dismissed all ten batsmen in a Test match innings, joining England's Jim Laker as the second player to achieve the feat. He became a part of the regular ODI team during the early 1990s and had some of the best performances during this time. The year 1996 proved to very successful for him as he was selected for the World Cup and emerged as the most successful bowler of the tournament, taking 15 wickets in seven matches at an Bowling average of 18.73.
Unlike his contemporaries, Kumble was not a big turner of the ball, but relied primarily on pace, bounce, and accuracy. He was nicknamed "Jumbo", as his deliveries, for a spinner, were "as fast as a jumbo jet". He was selected as the Cricketer of the Year in 1993 Indian Cricket, and one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year three years later. He was a member of the Indian team that was one of the joint-winners of the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy, where the title was shared with Sri Lanka.
Kumble was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honour in 2005. After having played for 18 years, he announced his retirement from international cricket in November 2008. In October 2012, he was appointed the chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC)'s cricket committee.
Between 2012 and 2015, Kumble held positions as a chief mentor for the teams Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League. In February 2015, he became the fourth Indian cricketer to be inducted into ICC Hall of Fame. He also served as the head coach of the Indian cricket team between 2016 and 2017. From 2020 to 2022, he served as the head coach and the director of cricket operations of the IPL team Punjab Kings.
Kumble did his primary schooling in Holy Saint English School and he completed his Class X from National High School Basavanagudi. He began playing cricket on the streets of Bangalore and joined a club called "Young Cricketers" at the age of 13. After his high school he completed his Class XII from National Pre-University College Basavanagudi. He later graduated from Rashtreeya Vidyalaya College of Engineering (RVCE) in B.E Mechanical Engineering in 1991–92.
Kumble married Chetana in 1999. They have three children – a son named Mayas, and two daughters, Aaruni and Svasti. He is a Vegetarianism.
Kumble took his first 50 Test wickets in 10 matches; the record remained the fastest by an Indian bowler, until Ravichandran Ashwin surpassed him by achieving the feat in nine matches. His 100 Test wickets in 21 Test matches, the second fastest by an Indian bowler after Erapalli Prasanna (who took 100 wickets in 20 matches). On 27 November 1993, he took six wickets for 12 runs in an ODI against the West Indies at Eden Gardens, Calcutta in the final of the Hero Cup, which was the best ODI bowling record by an Indian for very long time, before it was broken by Stuart Binny on 17 June 2014 against Bangladesh. In January 1994, when Sri Lanka toured India, Kumble picked up his first 10 wicket haul in his 14th match which ensured India's victory by an innings and 119 runs. He picked up 11 wickets for 128 runs in the match.
In 1995 English cricket season Kumble played for Northamptonshire and was the leading wicket taker with 105 wickets at the average of 20.40. He was the only bowler to take more than 100 wickets during that season. His best performance came against Hampshire in a drawn match in County Championship, picking up 13 wickets for 192 runs. This performance in the English county cricket was noted by Wisden as they named him one of their five Cricketers of the Year in 1996.
India played against Pakistan in the quarter-final phase, where Kumble picked up 3 for 48 in the match which India eventually won. In the semi-final they subsequently lost to Sri Lanka in which his performance was 1 for 51.
Kumble is one of three bowlers ever (the other two being Jim Laker of England in 1956 and later, Ajaz Patel of New Zealand in 2021) to have taken all ten wickets in a Test cricket innings, taking 10 for 74 runs. He achieved this against Pakistan in the second Test played in Delhi in February 1999. It has been said that once he had got nine wickets, his friend and teammate Javagal Srinath started deliberately bowling wide outside the off stump, so that Kumble could take the tenth wicket. In an interview via 10 Sports, former opener Sadagoppan Ramesh revealed that in that match, when he tried to catch Waqar Younis off Srinath's bowling, Srinath cautioned him to drop the catch, saying that "he had no business going after that catch". The performance was rated by Wisden as the second best bowling performance of all time, and the achievement was commemorated by naming a traffic circle in Bengaluru after him and gifting him a car with the customised licence plate: KA-10-N-10. In 1999 he was the third highest wicket taker with 88 wickets at the average of 30.03 behind Glenn Mcgrath and Shane Warne.
On 6 October 2004, Kumble became only the third spinner in the history of Test cricket after Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan and the second Indian bowler after Kapil Dev to capture 400 Test wickets. Reaching the mark took him 30 fewer Test matches than Dev, and 7 fewer than Warne. In the India-West Indies series of 2006, Kumble took 6–78 in the second innings of the final Test in Sabina Park, Jamaica, and bowled India to a historic series win. During the first innings of the match, Kumble scored 45 and became the second player in the history of the game after Warne to score 2000 runs and take over 500 Test wickets. He also holds the world record for trapping most batsmen leg before wicket. On 10 December 2004, Kumble became India's highest wicket-taker when he trapped Mohammad Rafique of Bangladesh to surpass Kapil Dev's haul of 434 wickets.
Kumble also played for ACC Asian XI against ICC World XI in the World Cricket Tsunami Appeal ODI match on 10 January 2005 held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground which was organised for the charity purpose for 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami victims. In the match, he picked up 2/73 and scored 11 runs off 7 balls. For his performances in 2005, he was named as 12th man in the World Test XI by ICC.
Kumble claimed his 500th Test wicket in the second Test of England's tour of India in March 2006, when he dismissed Steve Harmison leg before wicket. He became the first Indian and fifth overall to reach the mark. After returning to India from the 2007 World Cup, he announced his retirement from ODIs on 30 March.
On 10 August that year, Kumble scored his maiden Test century, making an unbeaten 110 against England at the Oval to help his team finish with 664. He took 117 Tests to reach his maiden Test hundred, which is a record for taking the most matches to score a century, beating Chaminda Vaas who had held this record previously with 96 Tests. It was also the only hundred by an Indian in the three-Test series. He is the only Test cricketer to have taken all ten wickets in an innings and score a Test hundred in his career. A day after scoring his ton, Kumble dismissed Michael Vaughan for his 900th International wicket and 563rd Test wicket, drawing him level with McGrath. Later he trapped Monty Panesar leg before wicket to finish the innings and overtake McGrath in the list of all-time wicket-takers.
Kumble has bowled 40850 balls in his entire Test career, which is the second highest after Muttiah Muralitharan's 44039 balls.
Kumble was appointed as the captain of the Indian Test team on 8 November 2007. He succeeded his state teammate Rahul Dravid, who resigned as the captain in September 2007. He is the only leg spinner who have become the captain of the team. His first series as captain was a three-match home series against Pakistan, which India won 1–0.
On 17 January 2008, in the third Test against Australia at WACA Ground, Kumble became the first Indian bowler and the third in the world to reach the milestone of 600 Test wickets. Kumble achieved the record just after the tea break when he had Andrew Symonds caught by Rahul Dravid at first slip. Kumble's 600 wickets came in 124 matches at an average of 28.68. Kumble has captured most wickets against Australia by an Indian bowler. Kumble is the third bowler after Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne to take 600 Test wickets.
Kumble announced his retirement from Test, first-class, and List A cricket on 2 November 2008 in the third Test match against Australia at Feroz Shah Kotla cricket stadium at New Delhi, India. He dismissed Mitchell Johnson as his last Test wicket. The final ball of his test career was a low full toss on which Hayden scored a four. After his retirement, Mahendra Dhoni was made the captain of the team.
On 18 April 2009 he took a five-wicket haul conceding just 5 runs in 3.1 overs against the defending champions Rajasthan Royals, which helped RCB get a 75-run victory in the second match of the 2009 edition, played in South Africa. Even today, this remains the fourth-best bowling figures in IPL history. After the departure of Kevin Pietersen for England's cricket commitments, Kumble was named as the captain of the team. On 23 May 2009, RCB defeated the Chennai Super Kings by six wickets and earned a spot in the final against the Deccan Chargers. RCB lost the finals but Kumble won Man of the Match, and is the only person in IPL history to win Man of the Match in the final despite being on the losing side. Though RCB could not win the tournament, Kumble ended as the most successful spin bowler and the 2nd highest wicket-taker of the tournament with 21 wickets at an economy rate of 5.86 runs per over behind R. P. Singh.
In 2010 Indian Premier League, Kumble led the team to the semi-finals. After being forced to play their semi-finals at the DY Patil Stadium following security concerns in Bangalore, the Royal Challengers lost their semi-final to the Mumbai Indians with Kumble taking 1 wicket at an economy rate of 7.50 in the match. For his performances in 2010, he was named in the ESPNcricinfo IPL XI.
Kumble announced his retirement from Indian Premier League on 4 January 2011. After his retirement from IPL as a player, RCB appointed him as the chief mentor for the team, where he led them to the 2011 final against the Chennai Super Kings. Kumble left that position in January 2013, moving to a similar role with the Mumbai Indians, which he quit in November 2015 after delivering them 2 titles in alternative years. He then served as the director of operations for the Punjab Kings from 2020 to 2022.
Kumble was one of the 4 bowlers, alongside Richard Hadlee, Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan (later Rangana Herath, James Anderson, Ravichandran Ashwin), and (then) the only Indian bowler ever, to have taken 5 wickets in a Test innings more than 30 times. He also holds the world record for the largest number of caught-and-bowled dismissals in Tests, 35 – which forms 5.65% of his total wickets. He is also one of 4 Indian bowlers to have conceded over 250 runs in a Test match, although he took 12 wickets in that match. He is known for bowling tirelessly, having bowled 72 overs in a Test innings once. He is also remembered for his tenacity in bowling even when injured, especially after an incident in a 2002 Test match against the West Indies in Antigua, where despite having his jaw fractured by a Mervyn Dillon delivery, he bandaged himself, came back to bowl, and took the wicket of Brian Lara.
Kumble relied more on accuracy, variations and bounce rather than spinning the ball. Sambit Bal, the editor of ESPNcricinfo, wrote, "That he Kumble has been an unusual spinner has been said many times before. It has also been said, a trifle unfairly, that he is a unidimensional bowler. Palpably, he has lacked the turn of Warne and Murali, but his variety has been subtler, far more apparent to batsmen than to viewers. He has shown that not only turn and flight that can deceive the batsman but also the changes of length and pace. He has been a cultured practitioner of his unique craft and a master of nuances."
As a captain and coach, he is a firm supporter of DRS.
On 21 November 2010, Kumble was elected as the President of the Karnataka State Cricket Association, with former teammates Venkatesh Prasad elected as Vice-President and Javagal Srinath elected as Secretary.
On 12 October 2012, Kumble was appointed as the new chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee. He was later retained for another three years on 2 March 2019.
During the four-match Test series against Australia in March, India lost the first match but made a sensational comeback, beating the Australians in two of the last three Tests, drawing one match and winning the series 2–1. India also registered two ODI series wins in Kumble's tenure, as India defeated New Zealand in a five ODI match series 3–2, followed by a 2–1 win over England in a three-match series.
On 20 June 2017, Kumble resigned from the post of head coach due to untenable differences with the then captain, Virat Kohli. His tenure ended after the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy, where India lost to Pakistan in the final.
In October 2019, he was appointed as the head coach and the director of cricket operations for Kings XI Punjab. In August 2022, Punjab Kings decided not to renew his contract.
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