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ICC CRICKET WORLD CUPFebruary 21, 2015Anil KumbleMELBOURNE, VICTORIA ANIL KUMBLE: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It's indeed a great honour for me for being inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame. Extremely delighted, really proud feeling to be a part of great luminaries who have played this great game of cricket over the last so many years. To be the fourth Indian into the hall of fame is something very special for me. I'd like to thank all my colleagues who I played with, all the supporters who have been a part of the Indian contingent over the last so many years. I'd like to thank all of them, the BCCI, the KSCA, the ICC for believing that I belong here. I'd like to thank all of them. It's indeed a great honour for me and something that I feel really humble. With great humility I accept this honour, and it's really a nice feeling to be a part of such an illustrious group of cricketers over the last so many years who have played this great game. Thank you. Q. Can you recall the first cap you wore, and now this biggest Hall of Fame cap? ANIL KUMBLE: Of course. Playing for India was something that as a young kid I dreamt of. To have the honour of representing the country for the first ever time in Sharjah you were there so in Sharjah for the One Day International, and then later on at World Trophy when I received the test cap. In fact Azhar gave me his cap. He said, you'd better keep this, it's a lucky cap, so that's something which I treasure and I still have it. I think it's a great journey that I have had. I've achieved what I could on the cricket field, whatever it needed to, even with my batting, so I guess I was pretty satisfied at the end of it. No regrets at all, so it was a great feeling to have achieved all of that. To get a cap I think after retirement is something very special, so I'm really grateful that this is something that I will cherish. It's all the struggles and hard work that one has been able to put in over the 20 years of my cricketing career. Yeah, it's a great feeling, but I cherish all those caps. I have all those caps. In fact, the cap became a bit of a superstition, right at the far end of my career, not far end, when I came in Australia in 2002 and 2003, if you notice and go back at watching those videos, it's those faded caps which keep continuing to are on my head. I just used the same cap for almost five, six years. It's turned from blue to gray, and it's pretty faded. I still have it, but it's a great feeling to wear the India cap for the first time and then to have done that for 132 test matches and 237 One Day Internationals I think is a great honour. Q. You're already said it's a great honour for you, but this is a bigger tradition in American sport. How aware were you of this Hall of Fame phenomenon in cricket? ANIL KUMBLE: No, I think it's a great feeling in any sport to have a Hall of Fame. Like you said, it's very evident, very every fan knows it in American sport, whereas in cricket I think it's only been a recent phenomenon with the ICC when did it Q. 2009. ANIL KUMBLE: 2009, I think is when they started it. They first had the 55 inducted initially, and then later on, I know that Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne recently received it, so it's something very special, like I mentioned. But I am hopeful that one day there will be a Hall of Fame museum across the world, especially the ICC countries, wherever we play cricket. Growing up, it'll be a great thing for everyone to look up to, and for me, I had my own heroes, coming from Bangalore, I looked up to Vishwanath, B.S. Chandrashekhar, Prasanna, so for me looking up to them and reading about them, although there was not much of television, not much of media exposure as there is now, so it was a great moment for me to look up to all my heroes and then eventually I was picked as an under 15 boy to be assistant with B.S. Chandrashekhar as the coach. That was the first time to me I ever met a legend, and for me to be under his tutelage for about a month was very special. So that remains with me forever, because of that possibly one month of him coaching me helped my cricketing career. Q. After all these years, all these achievements, would you say (inaudible) wanted to be a spinner, and in the top three wicket takers, so talk about that and becoming a spinner. Apart from the 10 wicket (inaudible) which is the best performance according to you? ANIL KUMBLE: Certainly it started off as a fastbowler initially and then changed to spin. I always put a price on my wicket. Whenever it was, I tried hard to score runs, and that was my nature. I mean, I was not the most flamboyant. I don't think I fit into any T20 batting lineup, but I did put a price on my wicket. Yes, it was something which I consciously changed at the start of my cricketing career, bowling legs, but although there was not much guidance as to how you need to bowl leg spin, so it was mostly an off spinner's grip that I held and I continued that through my career, and that's how I learned my own way of bowling leg break. I enjoyed it. I thought it was the right decision for me to at that point in time there was not many leg spinners in Karnataka. I got an opportunity to bowl leg spin, and immediately I was selected for the Karnataka team, under 15, so looking back that's how I continued to bowl leg spin. Yeah, that's something which yeah, I gave batting, as you mentioned, a lot of importance in the nets, but for me, the standout performance will always be the 10 wicket haul, and also the 2003 2004 when I toured Australia because that was a big turning point in my career because just before that or even during that series, there was a lot of feeling amongst a lot of people back home that I was finished, so it was very critical for me to come here and then do what I could do, and that series was probably the turning point of the second innings of my international career, of my test career. I think those three test matches that I played here were extremely important for me individually and also the way we played helped Indian cricket move forward, and I think that was a turning point for me. Q. Your finest hour as a captain came here in Australia. Does it add any extra that you receive this Hall of Fame award in Australia? ANIL KUMBLE: Yeah, it is very special because receiving the hall of fame award, the honour in a world event I think makes it even more special. ICC World Cup is something that millions watch, millions follow, and to receive that honour here at MCG in an India South Africa game I think is something really special. I know that there will be probably 80 percent of the crowd will be Indian, so it will be great to receive it in front of a home crowd and in a big event. I think that in itself is something very special. And you know, I think the Hall of Fame is something which, like you mentioned, through those careers that I have had, it's nice to have it in front of 80,000 people, 90,000 people. Yes, I was really fortunate that I was able to captain the country, although it came right at the end of my career, but that was very special. Personally for me, it changed my test career when I came here in 2003, 2004. I had a second innings in my own career. I think the Perth test victory probably changed the way Indian cricket looked at that point in time of playing overseas. Anything was possible, and Perth was always considered a tough wicket to play on, especially for a foreign team, which came, especially from the subcontinent, to beat Australia in Perth was never heard of. So to come there and do that gave a lot of confidence to the team. To me that victory will remain very special. Q. (Inaudible) how special is that and where does it rank for you? ANIL KUMBLE: Yeah, I mean, the test hundred will always remain special, because I believed that I could get a test hundred. It took me 117 test matches to realize my batting potential, yeah, it was very special because we won the series for the first time in my career in England, and you know, if you're leading up to that test match, in fact just before the test match, we had a team meeting where I openly said in the team meeting that I was disappointed with my batting lineup because we had great legends and not a single century on that tour. I didn't realize that I had to show them how to get a hundred. It was something very special. You could see the faces of my colleagues, how happy they were, more than me, when I scored that hundred because irrespective of who the batsman was, whether it was a Tendulkar, a Dravid, a Laxman, I had a lot of partnerships with Laxman because he used to bat at 6 and I would go at 8, I was the more confident one in the middle. I would tell them what to do, not the other way around. So I had to show them that, look, I am good enough to get a hundred, so I'm glad that it came. It was very special, but more special was that we could win a series in England. I mean, that was very good for us. And Antigua, that will remain with me, I guess. Everywhere I go people keep asking me what made you bowl in that scenario. Probably a similar kind of a feeling when I came to Australia, that when I went to West Indies in 2002, I had just come back from a serious shoulder operation, I had come back into the team, so I was really looking forward to that, and when I went to West Indies and I played the first test, was dropped for the next two, and then this was an opportunity for me to showcase that, look, that is still good enough. And when that opportunity was taken away because of the injury, I felt let down. I said, look, now I have an opportunity. So this was something which certainly was going in my mind, and I didn't make it to the team because I knew that I had to go back. So I felt, look, the shoulder is fine, and we have an opportunity to win a test match here in West Indies. We had won one and lost the other so it was one all, and if we won in Antigua there was a great chance we could win the series, and we had scored close to 600 runs. So I just felt like, go there, get a couple of breakthroughs and then help the team. The shoulder was fine, so I always felt if the shoulder was fine, then I should go out there and bowl. That was what it was when I went to bowl in that test match. Q. Talk about your partnership with Dravid, the sense of competition you had with Warne and Murali, and the best captain you have played under. ANIL KUMBLE: No, I think it was a great partnership right throughout with my fellow spinning colleagues. Initially it was Venkatapathy Raju, Rajesh Chauhan was a part of our group, Kirmani very briefly, Sunil Joshi later on, and then Budgy, of course, close to 10 years we played together. And sometimes we competed against each other, so that was a bit of a challenge. He played one whenever we toured abroad where they could only accommodate one spinner, so it was always either him or me, so that was a bit of a tough ask. Even in one dayers, it became that way. But I never felt that it was a competition. Yes, competition in the sense it was very healthy, so I never felt jealous or anything of that sort, saying, okay, I should be playing. Yes, you always feel that you should be playing in every game, but it was a great healthy competition with Budgy actually bowling exceptionally well on that Australian series in India when I was injured. So I think from then on, it changed the way we started playing Test cricket. It was a very healthy competition. I enjoyed the partnership because I believe that spinners like fastbowlers how they hunt in pairs also hunt in pairs. If you have two good spinners bowling from either end, it's not easy for the batsmen. Invariably pressure gets batsmen out, and the way you can build pressure is when you have quality at the other end, and I always had quality at the other end. I was fortunate I had all this quality at the other end. It was something very special as a partnership, and I enjoyed bowling with him. I mean, he was very aggressive, as well, and sometimes he showed that aggression on the field. So it was good to have that kind of a healthy relationship. In terms of captain, I think I've had some fantastic captains right through my career. I mean, I was very lucky that as I was the captain, I was lucky that most captains, I think all captains didn't really bother coming and telling me what fields to set. They didn't give me instructions. I never bowled with the captain's instructions. It was always the other way around where I was I had the freedom of setting my own field, bowling the way I did, so that relationship was there right from the first test match that I played until, of course, I captained the last test. So right through, whether it was Azhar, Sachin, Sourav, Rahul, I think all of them I had a great relationship, so it was never them saying I want you to bowl only like this. Yes, a couple of times we disagreed, but that's bound to be there on the field. If you play for 18 years, you can't always agree on every opinion. So that is bound to be there. But then I enjoyed those discussions, as well. I've had some great captains who I played for. Q. Warne and Murali? ANIL KUMBLE: Yeah, Warne and Murali competition, I don't know whether I looked at it as a competition, but I could never compete with a Murali or a Shane Warne. I wish I had the skills that they had. That's something which I always not regret, but I tried. I tried to bowl genuine leg spinners, tried classical leg spinners like Hirwani does, had great chats with him when we toured Australia or when they came to India, whenever we had the opportunity to sit and chat. So I've had some great friendships with Warney and even more with Murali because we played a lot more. We saw each other a lot more. Murali would always call up and congratulate me after every milestone, and he would be possibly 30, 40 wickets to the next milestone. He was always ahead of me when it came to reaching milestones. So I would also congratulate him saying, Murali, another three test matches I'll reach your 30 wickets, so congratulations. It was always a healthy friendship that we had, and it still continues. I'm really glad that I was able to play in the same era, and I thought all three of us had our own responsibilities as far as the team went, whether it had to be attacking most times, but also defensive at some times, not necessarily Warney because he had Glenn McGrath at the other end and he had other fastbowlers bowling in. But Murali and I, we had to literally hold one end together, and that was our role. We thoroughly enjoyed this partnership, and even to an extent Mushie, as well, Mushtaq, when they came to when Pakistan toured India in '99 we had a good chat, as well. So it was nice to have all these spinners, bonhommie so to speak. We would discuss how do you bowl such and such a batsman, and it was nice. So there was no secrets. Q. You've spoken about (inaudible), but as a slow bowler, basically what kind of a conviction do you have to come with when you're playing away from home, especially in the one day format? ANIL KUMBLE: I think the general conviction is that you won't get the wicket to your favor, so that's where you start from. And invariably, all five days will be like the first day of a test match back home, so you'll have to think on those lines, and especially when you are playing a test match. The roles change. You'll have to massage your ego a little bit and say, come on, you don't mind getting hit. You have to set different fields. You can't always have a short leg silly point and a gully or a slip always like you have back home, so those are the things that you'll have to probably get your mind aligned to, and once it happens, then it's a lot easier bowling outside of India, especially outside of the subcontinent. So that's something which I made that transition probably in 2003, 2004. Until then I was always fighting my own self saying, no, no, I think I can still have all these fielders there and then put pressure on the batsmen, irrespective of what the situation demanded. So that was one thing that I learned going forward in my career was it doesn't really matter if you have a deep square leg and a deep mid wicket to a Matthew Hayden. It's still an attacking position, and that's the kind of thinking that I had to make a shift. And coming to your one day, I think one day is all about keeping it simple. That's a challenge because you tend to not react to the way batsmen is doing, you preempt. You try and say, okay, think that, okay, he's going to play the short, so let me do this differently, but I always tried and kept it simple, bowling wicket and bowling about areas, good line and length. You always consistently do that, the batsman misses, you hit, so that was my simple formula whenever I toured abroad, as well. The bounce was different. You got a lot more bounce when you traveled to Australia or South Africa, so that was a small little change that you had to make in the length rather than in other areas that you had to do. Q. Do you see this as an additional responsibility, the Hall of Fame honour as an additional responsibility? ANIL KUMBLE: No, I think I've always played my game with extreme responsibility, so whatever honour, whatever opportunities I have got right through my career, whether it was, like you mentioned, from K Anil to Anil Kumble, yes, I've had that transition of whatever opportunities came my way, I felt that everything was I was responsible to not just that game or my own individual game but to a larger audience who were watching it. Yes, with honour and with this award, it certainly comes with great responsibility, and like I mentioned, it's a long list of great players who are in that very eminent players who have played this game. Yeah, to be a part of that is itself a great honour, and yeah, I think all along I have various acts that I've had, whether it was a part of the cricketing setup or the administrative setup. I think I've been extremely responsible in terms of managing all that, and then after that all I can do is give my 100 percent, and that's all I've done right through my career. Yes, you know, over a period of time it balances it out. Initially in my career, like I mentioned, I had pretty average record outside of India, but post 2003, 2004, it started getting better, and then when I finished my career, if you look at the older record, it's not bad. I think if you give your 100 percent, I always believe that just giving your 100 percent over a period of time, things balance out, and then you get the right result. You might not get it immediately. For some people it happens straightaway. For me it's always happened later than sooner. So I've always given my 100 percent, and whatever responsibility I already have the huge responsibility of chairing the ICC cricket committee, so that's something which is a great honour, and I represent the cricketing fraternity in that responsibility, so I'd like to continue doing what I can in that form. Q. When did you sense that your team started (inaudible)? ANIL KUMBLE: I think the team certainly looked at me at the very start. That's what I believed. I mean, I always believed that I was not even when I made my debut for India, or whichever I game I played for, I never felt that I was the fourth bowler coming in or the fifth bowler coming in, so there is a senior bowler, so he will pick up the wickets. My job is to just contain. No, I always felt that I have to do the job, whether it was a green top, whether it was turning track, whether it's the first day, whether it's the final day. I always believed that I had to pick up wickets. I thought the team also started looking at me possibly after the England series in '93, so it was pretty early in my career, and I was surprised I mentioned this, I was surprised that even after being dropped in 2002, 2003, when I made my when I came back into the team, people still expected me to win matches, so I couldn't figure it out when people wanted me to retire, and then when I actually made a comeback, people expected the same thing. So I couldn't seriously figure this logic out. When everybody wanted you to retire, and then suddenly you're playing a match, and then the same people still expect you to win the game, so I didn't understand that logic. But I guess that was what was expected of me, and I was glad that I was able to meet my own expectations. I'm extremely happy with my career. Personally, yes, as a team I would have love to be a part of a winning World Cup team, although we finished second in 2003, but I was glad that some of my colleagues who played with me were able to achieve that in 2011, and I was there watching the game. That will be one regret from a team's perspective, and then of course a couple of you're always not satisfied with the number of test victories that you would want, so I would have liked to have more series victories, not just this was one area where in Australia we wanted to come and win a Test series. South Africa didn't happen. West Indies, England, Pakistan happened, New Zealand I was all a part of, but we still won. So it was nice to have all those I have no regrets. I thought whatever I could do in my 18 years, I did it as an individual. Q. Does any international cricketer today in the grand scheme of things remind you of yourself and your work ethic? ANIL KUMBLE: I think a lot of people remind me of that, but as far as the attitude on the field, I don't know off the field how they are because I have absolutely no idea, but I sometimes see Ashwin and see myself in him sometimes, when he's bowling, batting. He's a better batsman than me, that's for sure. But yeah, I can see that grit, I can see the determination, I can see he wants to just hang around and do it for the team, so I see a lot of me in Ashwin. I think he's a fantastic cricketer, has achieved a lot in a short span. Of course there's been some question marks like I had question marks when I played outside of India. Same thing is there with Ashwin, as well, but he can only get better if he starts playing outside of India. If he doesn't play outside of India, he'll never get better. So I see certainly Ashwin as someone who I believe has everything to be a fantastic cricketer for India. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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