The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : NON-IDENTICAL SUPER TWINS

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Tuesday, Dec 14, 2004

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

NON-IDENTICAL SUPER TWINS

IT MAY BE more than a happy coincidence that two great Indian cricket champions achieved significant personal landmarks in the first Test against Bangladesh at Dhaka recently. As players of exceptional ability, Sachin Tendulkar, who equalled Sunil Gavaskar's world record for the most number of Test centuries (34), and Anil Kumble, who went past Kapil Dev's 434 to become India's highest wicket-taker in Tests, have a lot in common. From the time they began playing for the country — Tendulkar made his Test debut in Pakistan in November 1989, and Kumble in England in August 1990 — these two men have epitomised virtues that made them mainstays of Indian cricket. Superficially, they seem poles apart: one is the most celebrated superstar Indian sport has seen, a man who cannot even dine in privacy outside his home; the other is an unassuming man who has almost inconspicuously worked his way to greatness. But what twins the batting legend with the super-spinner is a set of core values that has underlain the long journey to historic peaks. Few great cricketers anywhere have matched these two men's capacity for hard work, their unwavering commitment to the team cause, and their courage and grace under pressure.

For Tendulkar as much as Kumble, the last few seasons have been the best of times and the worst of times. But they have shown tremendous resilience and equanimity to reach personal milestones that will not be equalled in a long time. If the advent of the swashbuckling and exciting Virender Sehwag saw the spotlight move away from Tendulkar now and again, loss of form and injury meant that the most gifted and regal Indian batsman of all time had to nose down and battle his way out like a commoner. But from the way he has fought back and shown that the force is very much with him, it is clear that we are nowhere close to witnessing the last chapter of the Tendulkar book of Bradmanesque deeds. It may be debatable whether he will ever again touch the aesthetic peak of the second half of the 1990s when his genius altered our perception of the possible and the impossible in batting. But even if the 31-year-old maestro fails to come up with that sort of magic, it became obvious from the manner in which he got down to the business of amassing runs in Dhaka that he retains the hunger of his youth. In fact, his substantial innings are likely to get bigger and bigger during this phase in his career.

Kumble may be three years older than Tendulkar but the man from Bangalore has proved that his focus and fighting reserves make him good for several more international cricket seasons. With his 68 wickets, Kumble is Test cricket's most successful bowler in 2004. The Karnataka leg spinner, who now has 438 Test wickets, continues to operate with the sort of precision and eye for detail that a master craftsman in a Rolex assembly line would be proud of. Accuracy is his trademark, subtle variation his variant of a grandmaster's brain-propelled moves on the chessboard. Never quite the blue-eyed boy of successive Indian cricket administrations, Kumble has had to prove himself more often than someone of his talent and stature might have been expected to. But the record speaks for itself. No teammate, not even Tendulkar, has had a bigger hand in India's Test victories over the past 15 years. Kumble has claimed five wickets in an innings 15 times in the 29 matches India has won with him playing.

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