It has not sunk in yet but in a few days time, I know it will. At the end of the series against Australia this week, India will find itself without two of its most distinguished cricketers.
Two of my oldest teammates won’t be part of my dressing room any more. Anil Kumble came to me during the warm-ups on the last day of the Delhi Test and told me about his decision to quit. I didn’t know what to do; he has been part of my cricket since 1990.
Sourav Ganguly had announced his decision to go in the dressing room in Bangalore and I was surprised about it as we had never had any discussion of the sort. There is always a sadness about retirements of teammates with whom you have played for so long. But I believe the individual knows best about the state of his mind and his body and so the decision to retire should be respected.
No two cricketers are alike, no two people are and so it is with Anil and Sourav. You have to respect and accept difference and acknowledge and appreciate the varied talents and skills that different players bring into a dressing room.
Persistence and consistency was Anil’s strength and he reinvented himself all the time. Every couple of seasons he came up with a few new deliveries and I saw how much he pushed his body to the limit all the time. He put his body on the line for cricket for so long. In any list of India’s greatest cricketers, he will feature right at the top, bracketed alongside giants like Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev.
When we came out to field in the second innings in Delhi, I went up to Anil and took his cap to give it to the umpire. It is something I used to do between overs, not all the time, but when we needed something to happen, to change our luck. I would run from the other end of the ground to take his cap to give to the umpire. It had started in 1999 at the Kotla when he took 10 wickets against Pakistan and I always thought it worked from then on.
So this time, I said “Kumble, this has been special to me, so let me do this for the last time.”
Two of my oldest teammates won’t be part of my dressing room any more. Anil Kumble came to me during the warm-ups on the last day of the Delhi Test and told me about his decision to quit. I didn’t know what to do; he has been part of my cricket since 1990.
Sourav Ganguly had announced his decision to go in the dressing room in Bangalore and I was surprised about it as we had never had any discussion of the sort. There is always a sadness about retirements of teammates with whom you have played for so long. But I believe the individual knows best about the state of his mind and his body and so the decision to retire should be respected.
No two cricketers are alike, no two people are and so it is with Anil and Sourav. You have to respect and accept difference and acknowledge and appreciate the varied talents and skills that different players bring into a dressing room.
Persistence and consistency was Anil’s strength and he reinvented himself all the time. Every couple of seasons he came up with a few new deliveries and I saw how much he pushed his body to the limit all the time. He put his body on the line for cricket for so long. In any list of India’s greatest cricketers, he will feature right at the top, bracketed alongside giants like Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev.
When we came out to field in the second innings in Delhi, I went up to Anil and took his cap to give it to the umpire. It is something I used to do between overs, not all the time, but when we needed something to happen, to change our luck. I would run from the other end of the ground to take his cap to give to the umpire. It had started in 1999 at the Kotla when he took 10 wickets against Pakistan and I always thought it worked from then on.
So this time, I said “Kumble, this has been special to me, so let me do this for the last time.”
After the game, I told Anil that it had been an honour for me to have played cricket in the same era. And it was an era where we achieved some new landmarks for the team and Sourav was part of the best of those days.
Sourav had a great understanding of his game, of the game as a whole and I have seen very few batsman who are able to set bowlers up as well as he did.
We opened the innings for more than 100 ODIs and I have seen him get bowlers to bowl where he wanted them to. We had a very good rapport together and I could often tell from his footwork what he was going to do and vice versa. He was a masterful constructor of an innings and had a superb sense of how and when to accelerate.
I remember us batting in bad light in the Headingley Test in 2002 because we needed quick runs in very little time to set up a target. The bowlers were finding it difficult and we kept saying we had no problem with the light because the momentum was with us.
Finally, the umpires said they could not see the ball so they were stopping the game. Sourav and I protested, said the light was fine, we kept pushing it, but had to go eventually and walked off laughing. We won that Test and levelled the series. You tend to remember those kind of days.
Whenever I’m asked about how much India will miss Anil I remember what he meant to me when I was a captain. If something was happening, I would give the ball to Anil. If nothing was happening, I would give the ball to Anil. If you needed to contain runs, you give the ball to Anil. If you needed to attack, you give the ball to Anil. India will miss him every day and at all times.
Sourav had a great understanding of his game, of the game as a whole and I have seen very few batsman who are able to set bowlers up as well as he did.
We opened the innings for more than 100 ODIs and I have seen him get bowlers to bowl where he wanted them to. We had a very good rapport together and I could often tell from his footwork what he was going to do and vice versa. He was a masterful constructor of an innings and had a superb sense of how and when to accelerate.
I remember us batting in bad light in the Headingley Test in 2002 because we needed quick runs in very little time to set up a target. The bowlers were finding it difficult and we kept saying we had no problem with the light because the momentum was with us.
Finally, the umpires said they could not see the ball so they were stopping the game. Sourav and I protested, said the light was fine, we kept pushing it, but had to go eventually and walked off laughing. We won that Test and levelled the series. You tend to remember those kind of days.
Whenever I’m asked about how much India will miss Anil I remember what he meant to me when I was a captain. If something was happening, I would give the ball to Anil. If nothing was happening, I would give the ball to Anil. If you needed to contain runs, you give the ball to Anil. If you needed to attack, you give the ball to Anil. India will miss him every day and at all times.
Sourav has played for more than 10 years and we will miss his presence in the dressing room. I don’t think there is any cricketer who has not gone through a bad patch and so did Sourav, but he showed tremendous grit and determination to come back. As much cricket as I’ve played with him and seen him play, this period is the best I’ve seen him bat. He will go out with his head high.
I have shared a lot with them, good and bad days in cricket, happy memories on and off the field. Delhi was particularly poignant as everything happened so quickly. After Anil addressed us all at tea, I said a few words about him too and I don’t think there were too many dry eyes in that room.
When I’m asked about my most memorable moment with Sourav, there have been many but one that stays with me for some reason is flooding his room with water during our under-15 days. He had been sleeping and when he got up he had no idea what was going on. I don’t think I will ever forget the sight of his face. Of course, I’d made sure all his bats and pads were safely off the ground first, so no one could say I wasn’t considerate.
I never played pranks on Anil though, he was more of a serious person and I found that there were two personalities to him. Off the field he is calm and composed. On the field he was in control, but was very, very aggressive. You could tell he wanted to make batsmen’s life hell and send them back to where they had come from.
This will be a new phase for both Anil and Sourav and my best wishes are with them. For so long, one guy thought only about how to take wickets and win matches and the other about how to score runs and win matches. There will be other things they want to do now but I know that the heart will always be with cricket. It has been a joy to play alongside them, to share the dressing room with them and to win for India.
Anil and Sourav were two very different cricketers and very different individuals. But for Indian cricket, they are both true heroes, true inspirations for the next generation.
When I’m asked about my most memorable moment with Sourav, there have been many but one that stays with me for some reason is flooding his room with water during our under-15 days. He had been sleeping and when he got up he had no idea what was going on. I don’t think I will ever forget the sight of his face. Of course, I’d made sure all his bats and pads were safely off the ground first, so no one could say I wasn’t considerate.
I never played pranks on Anil though, he was more of a serious person and I found that there were two personalities to him. Off the field he is calm and composed. On the field he was in control, but was very, very aggressive. You could tell he wanted to make batsmen’s life hell and send them back to where they had come from.
This will be a new phase for both Anil and Sourav and my best wishes are with them. For so long, one guy thought only about how to take wickets and win matches and the other about how to score runs and win matches. There will be other things they want to do now but I know that the heart will always be with cricket. It has been a joy to play alongside them, to share the dressing room with them and to win for India.
Anil and Sourav were two very different cricketers and very different individuals. But for Indian cricket, they are both true heroes, true inspirations for the next generation.
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