K Anil and the art of the fiver

So K Anil is gone. One by one, they're all leaving. By the end of the year, only SRT and VVS may remain. Sometime soon after, both will be gone. There can be no further evidence that my childhood is ending. And don't even get me started on looking forward to watching legends like Virat K and Robin U from now on.

I still vividly recall the only time I spoke to Anil Kumble, in a coffee shop in central London. He was talking about the mind of a spinner and spoke about how Indian bowlers have long neglected the art of getting wickets. He didn't care about a spinners run-up, or his delivery stride, or his head position, or his wrist, or fitness, or muscle strength, or finger length, or anything. He just wanted spinners to learn how to get wickets.

"Just like there's a way a batsman goes about getting hundreds, pacing himself, rotating strike, targeting bowlers, conserving energy ... there's a way for a bowler to get five wickets. It's something you pick up with experience but it's the only thing that matters at the end of the day."

And that pretty much summed up Kumble. There was no real drama in his run-up (unlike Warne's mesmeric approach); and there was no fluidity in the action (unlike Murali's rhythmical bounding in). But there were wickets, buckets and buckets of them. Hopefully he takes to coaching young spinners like Mishra, Chawla and Ojha, teaching them the art of the fiver.

As far as the fan in me went, I was far more attached to the the pre-2001 Kumble. It was so heartwarming watching an Indian bowler put the fear of God into batsmen. To just see their mortified faces, when up against Kumble on a crumbler was sheer drama. I used to go mad when Kumble unleashed those yorkers that rattled the base of stumps and there were few more exhilarating sights than watching Mongia, Azhar, Manjrekar and Dravid prowl around the bat for an inside edge. It was too riveting and there was no way my school grades were going to improve in that era.

Post-2001, Kumble lost that destructive element in him. He still got plenty of wickets, and his overseas record improved considerably, but he was always a grafter rather than a destroyer. In many ways, it was similar to Tendulkar post 1999, when he sacrificed aggression for precision. He was still effective but batsmen rarely feared him anymore. My grades were still bad but that's because I was watching VVS.