Wednesday 5 November 2008

anil kumble retires

Anil Kumble retiring... the end of a terrific career, of course others will step up, but Kumble was pretty much a complete cricketer. what a champ; what a cricketing brain; what a gentleman.

it is amazing that the 2 greatest wicket takers (with 2 of the best cricket brains) were leggies!

but wait! you say. Murali is not a leggie. to this i say "700+ wickets, everyone a no ball!"

Warne and Kumble are the 2 greatest wicket takers, and Murali will ALWAYS have an asterisk next to his name. the ICC should forever be ashamed at changing the rules to include him, and diluting the game due to unsporting pressures.

of course people will say, "Murali passed the bio-mechanical tests done in WA, (after the extra degrees of flex were allowed)." and yet i still cant believe few others in the cricketing community had the guts to say what was glaringly obvious; Murali changed his action to pass the tests! how the testers permitted that is mind boggling!

it was immediately apparent that Murali was more front-on in the tests and also bowled more with an arm action straight over the top- less twisted- and with less of his wrist bent back so that the palm is turned towards his face, than he does in competition.

sure his rubber wrist and permanently bent elbow do create a degree of optical illusion, so how is it that in the bio-mech test it (his action) failed to have this same trick of the eye? because he was bowling without a shirt?

the other thing that chomps is that everyone (in the game) makes a point of saying how nice a guy Murali is- maybe so, i don"t know him personally so will not comment, but why is that part of justifying his action?

what i do know, is that even after someone better comes along and takes more wickets, a truely brilliant player (bowling the hardest form in the game) only gets a bronze medal in the history books, and will after Murali gets knocked off go into the forgotten fourth place.

i wish Anil Kumble all the best in his years after international competition., and thank him for his contribution to game.

4 comments:

  1. Fully agree on this one Stoph, I know I nearly fell off my own chair!

    Anil was fantastic (even if he bowled a heap of darts and probably hung around too long), a statesman of the game.

    Murali, well what can I say, cricket needed a hero , and the ICC made a horrible mistake in altering the rules to let him compete.

    I think the real tradgedy to come out of this saga is the loss of , in my opinion, the best umpire going around: Darrell Hair. Nearly the only umpire who had the balls to be true to themselves and display the courage of his convictions. A sad loss.

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  2. Ah but Kumble does not smoke or chase the skirts, Warne is king for me....come back oh great pants man!

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  3. hard to offer a counter point to either of these posts.

    Darrell Hair was gold and hopefully his 2 tests on the elite panel this year will not be his last.

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  4. I don't barrack for officialdom but II reckon Daza likes a pie & a beer....he must be ok for an umpire.

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