Kumble puts India first as he calls time on Test career

At a time when cricket needs as many honourable, trustworthy and thoroughly decent men in it as possible, the game is sadly waving goodbye to Anil Kumble, a player who has shown such admirable traits throughout his career.

At 38, and with the thousands of energy sapping overs on generally unresponsive Indian pitches finally taking its toll, Kumble's distinguished career was reaching its conclusion. But, typically, Kumble's decision to retire was not brought on by an inability to compete at the highest level. As India's highly respected captain he could have easily continued playing, adding to his 132 Test caps and 619 wickets in this week's final Test against Australia and then against England in December.

Kumble, however, has always put the team's goals in front of his own and his decision to stand down was made because it was right for Indian cricket. In Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India have a leader who could turn the side in to the dominant force in world cricket. He would also be aware that the country has a ready replacement in Amit Mishra, a young, gifted leg-spinner. Kumble would not have wanted to hold back such capable replacements.

Such characteristics may suggest that Kumble was a bit soft in the heat of battle. Far from it. Kumble played with pride and spirit, rarely if ever taking a backward step in more than 18 years of international cricket.

Kumble did not possess the confrontational, showman personality of Shane Warne, and he never came close to spinning the ball as sharply as Muttiah Muralitharan. He took his wickets in a more attritional manor. His accuracy was unrelenting and he spun the ball just enough to exploit helpful conditions. The googly and top-spinner claimed as many wickets as the leg-break. Being a tall man he extracted greater bounce from pitches. Kumble's finest bowling performance came against Pakistan in Delhi almost a decade ago, when he became the second bowler in Test cricket, after Jim Laker, to take all 10 wickets in an innings. His solitary Test hundred, against England at The Oval in 2007, would have given him equal pleasure. The innings secured India a rare overseas Test series victory.

It is to be hoped that Kumble is not lost to cricket and that the Board of Control for Cricket in India use him to get a better perspective of what is good for the future of the game.

India v Australia Ponting seeks positives

*Australia's bowlers must find inspiration from their side's batting in the drawn third Test against India to help square the series, captain Ricky Ponting said yesterday. Michael Clarke hit 112 after the top-four batsmen scored fifties to amass 577 in reply to India's first-innings 613. India lead 1-0 and the final Test starts in Nagpur on 6 November. "We had the worst of the batting conditions and we managed to play very, very well," Ponting said. "The challenge now lies in being able to take 20 wickets."

*Third Test

Delhi (Final day of five): Match drawn.

India won toss

India First innings 613 for 7 dec (G Gambhir 206, V V S Laxman 200no).

Australia First Innings 577 (M J Clarke 112, R T Ponting 87, M L Hayden 83, S M Katich 64, M E K Hussey 53; V Sehwag 5-104).

India Second Innings

(Overnight: 43 for 2)

G Gambhir lbw b Johnson 36

V Sehwag b Lee 16

I Sharma c Ponting b Clark 1

R Dravid b Lee 11

S R Tendulkar c Hayden b White 47

V V S Laxman not out 59

S C Ganguly not out 32

Extras (lb4 w1 nb1) 6

Total (for 5 dec, 77.3 overs) 208

Fall: 1-29 2-34 3-53 4-93 5-145.

Did not bat: †M S Dhoni, *A Kumble, Z Khan, A Mishra.

Bowling: Lee 17-3-48-2; Clark 12-6-22-1; Clarke 20.3-7-56-0; Katich 1-0-5-0; Johnson 12-0-23-1; White 8-0-23-1; Watson 7-0-27-0.

Australia Second Innings

M L Hayden not out 16

S M Katich not out 14

Extras (lb1) 1

Total (for 0, 8 overs) 31

Did not bat: *R T Ponting, M E K Hussey, M J Clarke, S R Watson, B J Haddin, C L White, M G Johnson, S R Clark.

Bowling: Kumble 4-0-14-0; Sehwag 2-0-14-0; Mishra 2-0-2-0.

Umpires: B F Bowden (NZ) and Aleem Dar (Pak).

Bowling them over: Top Test wicket-takers

*M Muralitharan (Sri Lanka)

Tests 123 Wickets 756 Average 21.96

n SK Warne (Aus)

Tests 145 Wickets 708 Average 25.41

n A Kumble (India)

Tests 132 Wickets 619 Average 29.65

n GD McGrath (Aus)

Tests 124 Wickets 563 Average 21.64

n CA Walsh (WI) Tests 132 Wickets 519 Average 24.44

n Kapil Dev (India)

Tests 131 Wickets 434 Average 29.64