Were it not for umpires’ tendency to not give batsmen out LBW when they take a stride forward, Kumble could very well have the most tally of wickets in cricket at this point. I’ve noticed this a lot. Kumble gets batsmen out LBW a lot, but only a small fraction of those are given (mostly because the batsman takes a step forward). Kumble’s habits don’t help him much either: he appeals just as vociferously for balls pitching outside leg or clearly missing the stumps, which is just plain ridiculous. Kumble doesn’t impart too much spin or bounce on the ball, so he’s hitting the stumps a lot. On all kinds of pitches, against all kinds of batsmen. While watching on TV, I can tell that; and Hawkeye usually confirms that. So, he has so many valid LBW shouts that aren’t even entertained by the umpires.
Technological assistance will help him, whenever it gets here. Hawkeye’s not going to be offiicial anytime soon, so Kumble might never have the benefit of that technology. But just being able to re-appeal against the on-field umpire’s decisions should help.
July 11, 2006 at 11:20 am
He is the greatest Indian cricketer I’ve seen in 20 plus years, and that is very big indeed.
July 11, 2006 at 8:37 pm
Are you out of your mind? Kapil took 434 wickets on home pitches that were not exactly seamer friendly; Gavaskar broke Bradman’s record of the most # of centuries in test cricket; Tendulkar, well, he is Tendulkar; and Dravid. You put all these names behind Kumble?
December 26, 2006 at 9:40 am
No offense to any of you, but if Shane Warne isn’t considered the best bowler of all time they should probably stop playing the game. However, both Kapil and Kumble are great bowlers. A sign of this is how many wickets they took against the best teams in their era - Kapil took 89 wickets against the Windies and Kumble has his most wickets against Australia.
I think Kapil is better though when you consider that about 51% of his wickets came in India on tracks that aren’t pace friendly whereas Kumble has picked up about 66% of his wickets in India on very, VERY friendly wickets for spin bowling.
Glenn McGrath has a higher wickets/match ratio than Kapil in India though, McGrath averages just over 4 wickets a match in India whereas Kapil averaged about 3.5. Shows how good McGrath is.
December 9, 2007 at 9:58 pm
Earl Anthony Earl Anthony Earl Anthony Earl Anthony Earl Anthony Earl Anthony Earl Anthony Earl Anthony Earl Anthony Earl Anthony Earl Anthony Earl Anthony Earl Anthony Earl Anthony Earl Anthony Earl AnthonyEarl Anthony Earl Anthony Earl Anthony
….get my point
or maybe Earl Anthony