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Your responses to - Is Anil Kumble finished?

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Name: S.Sriram Comment:I think that Harbajan's record outside India is not high class, if you compare that with Murali, Warne or Saqlain. So you cannot say Harbajan will pick himself. Neither can you can blame Kumble for not doing well outside for he did not have a McGrath or Gillespie at the other end.

I also think that Warne waits for the batsmen to make mistake with unerring accuracy and variety whereas Kumble tries to bowl out the batsmen, which works on indian pitches but on foreign picthes he is played easily. I don't know why India does not play four fast bowlers when there is a need. It is not a matter of whether Kumble is finished or not but who can take wickets outside india.

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Name:Chaitanya Comment:Kumble is still our best spinner, whether in India or abroad. But he may not be a match winner abroad, but it doesn't say that Harbhajan can be a match winner abroad either? Simply because of his experience and better ability to bat, I think he should have been picked ahead of Harbhajan on a pace friendly wicket. Only one thing I can think of as the reason behind Kumble being dropped, he was a potential threat to Ganguly's captaincy! Also this was the same tactic used against the great Kapil Dev and forced him for a retirement. God save Indian cricket!

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Name:Eashwar Comment:Well It seems sad, at the first impression that Anil Kumble, a proven match winner (Indian soil ), being left to sit in the pavilion, while the boys take the field and make plans to defeat Windies. But then, if one carefully examines, the track record of indians abroad and also of Anil Kumble, one would probably feel that he could fare not better than a medium pacer, who has the knack of making the odd ball talk once in while.

Considering this I would feel, making Anil sit at the benches, was in the interests of the team. Having said this I should also reaffirm that on an average no indian, with due respects to Sachin and Rahul, no one could ever deal a decisive blow, to the opponents and wrap up a Test victory. So far whatever has been achieved were mere Test vistories against, teams like Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Now the pursuit of a series victory seems so very possible, against the Windies. If one were to miss Anil Kumble sitting in front of a TV, it would be understandable. Yet .... I guess Ganguly is correct.

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Name:Kedar Pandit Comment:I think Kumble without the usual designer tracks is slightly better than a mediocre county seamer! Unfortunately he has been found wanting time and again when bowling abroad, yet the Indian think tank never seems to get into their thick heads that he is almost a liability.

Why not invest in Tinu Yohannan and a few out and out quickies instead? Its infuriating to find the fabled Indian line up, including Tendlya (Sacing Tendulkar) just collapse time and again without a fight. If they really are that good, why have they not posted a 600 plus score even in India against a decent side? Even England showed Tendlya and Kumble's limitations. So lets stop kidding ourselves that both Kumble and Tendlya are champions abroad, as Barry Richards, not a bad player himself (!!) has never rated Tendlya nor Kumble that highly and I can clearly see why despite my initial disapproval!

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Name:Rishabh Raj Comment:It is a very subjective question and deserves a subjective answer....as such Kumble got in the team in the first place because of his knack of surprising batsmen with the "extra-bounce" he extracts from the wicket. And now he has added certain subtelities like a gentle leg spinner or a googly.

So if he remains the former....he can only be successful on wickets which are not true but then he can be successful even if his line and length is consistent because no wicket afterall can be perfectly true...for this he must go back to his previous action of bowling fom close to his ears like a paceman.....but then he'll have to forgo his spin which if seen matter of factly is useless.

So what he should do is go back to his previous paceman like action and change his action once or twice for the variations ....otherwise I don't think he can ever be the same strike bowler for India both in India or abroad

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Name:Shantan Comment:I don't think Kumble is finished yet. Kumble has largely been ineffective on wickets outside India and that's the reason why he is not in the playing XI. This selection is a welcome change because Indian teams have largely been picked on reputation rather than logic.

Kumble is still devastating on the dust bowls of India, but he has been given far too many opportunities to be successful in foreign tracks. He played so long because there wasn't much competition for his place. Harbhajan has a little more variety than Kumble and deserves to be given opportunities to be successful abroad.

I hope Ganguly applies the logic of team balance and performance to himself as well. He has not justified his continued presence in the team and that too as captain...

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Name:G.P.Vinaybabu Comment:No. He has lot of years of cricket in him and he is bound to be the captain of India some day. Kumble's leaving out was not the issue during the second test. It has got more to do with the way Saurav handled this whole issue.

There were enough reasons to leave out Kumble for his poor overseas record, but there were equally good number of reasons to play him. For one, he is an experienced cricketer who inspires the whole team to perform better. Moreover, he is a fighter to the core and thats a rare quality in Indians who collapse under pressure.

Some say that Kumble was retained on the SA tour and this WI tour because of Rahul Dravid's persuasion. This is pure nonsense. I am sure Kumble has always earned his place in the team. Kumble has won several matches for India and that alone should stand him in good stead to earn a permanent place in this Indian side. It has also got more to do with regional cricket lobbies.

Kumble is from Karnataka and not many people like the state's dominance in Indian cricket. With Dravid, Kumble forms a formidable batting-bowling powerhouse for the Indian team. But the fact that a senior player like Rahul Dravid has to prove himself everytime he takes the field is enough evidence of how Karnataka cricketers are treated.

In sharp contrast Mumbai players have huge backing not only from the selection board but also from Television commentators. Now, coming back to Ganguly. Ganguly as expected has got all the credit for this win. Ganguly who probably is the most unpopular captain India has ever seen, doesn't obviously feel it is important to maintain good relationships with players, press or the paying public.

The way he was shouting at his own players when things didn't go his way on the last day of the 2nd test in WI and the way he was pumping his fists like a school kid, are enough evidence for his amateurish ways. So, Ganguly has once again survived, inspite of removing Kumble from the team, but will the Indian cricket survive this cricketing politics.

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Name:Gautam Rohidekar Comment:To me, the dropping of Anil Kumble marks a new level of maturity in Indian cricket thinking. Everybody has now known for a long time that Kumble is completely ineffective abroad, but no one has had the guts to do something about it.

Also, till today, India had very few options. He will still be India's No. 1 bowler at home but he should not be picked abroad. He has never, ever struck fear in the hearts of opponents abroad.

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Name:Deepak Harathi Comment:Anil Kumble, arguably the best matchwinner India has ever produced,is now sitting in the dressing room even after being fully fit(Physically!!). The reason, well its too obvious...pick horses for the courses. Then again, on such fast tracks, even Harbhajan cannot be productive.

So why leave Kumble, the senior of the two, out? A veteran of around 70 Tests with 300 odd wickets, Kumble is definitely a more seasoned cricketer than Harbhajan and knowing that he has a variable pace and bounce in his deliveries he would be the best bet on the West Indian soil.

He almost has the action and pace as that of a medium pace bowler and hence he would be effective. Barring Rahul Dravid, no one has shown consistency in foriegn soil. So shall we drop the likes of Tendulkar, Ganguly etc.?

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Name:Pramod Shamjois Comment:I don't think he is finished yet. He has tremendous amount of commitment and determination to prove and stake claim for the Match Winner for India. I would like to know what difference did Harbhajan made in the last Test? He just got 1 wicket and all the credit should go to Srinath for leading the pace attack superbly with the support of Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan.

We should stop all the regional feelings because the very reason Deep Dasgupta is on the tour is because he has the support of Saourav Ganguly. Otherwise if you go by the merit, Deep Dasgupta shouldn't have been in the team for the Wicket Keeping Skills that he has shown.

Ajay Ratra should have been the only wicketkeeper on the tour and Dravid would always have served as standby. Deep Dasgupta didn't even serve as opener and failed miserably. At the same time even though Srinath expressed his ire about dropping one of leading Test Wicket taker for India like this and his close associate Kumble, but Srinath continued to deliver the kind of stuff that he was expected.

Going by his remarks, Srinath would have polished off the Westindies Tail faster than how it happened in the last Test. Everybody is speculating that Sourav dropped Kumble because Sourav was dropped when Kumble was Vice Captain during last tour.

If that is the case then it is very childish on the part of Sourav's part, because going by the result of the last Test which India won, Harbhajan whom Sourav supports did nothing.

Kumble always polishes the tail of the opposition very fast, with this in mind, the tense moments and the amount of margin by which we won would have gone either way with Shivnarine Chanderpaul still batting. So we should not be emotional when we are selecting a team for the Country, we should always select a Team by the merit of each person and the requirement of the team.

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Name:Praful Comment:If we go by statistics, Kumble, with 318 wickets from 69 Tests, is India's second highest wicket-taker of all time. In One-Day Internationals also, he is close to 300 mark, with remarkable performances like 6-12 against West Indies.

He evinced the mystique of his game by claiming all 10 wickets in a Test innings against Pakistan in Feb 1999 in New Delhi. But one can't deny the fact that he has assembled most of his Test wickets, about 65%, at home and struggled to manage only rest 35% away from his amicable soil.

This certainly has raised questions about his dexterity outside India. The real challenge and test of adroitness is in registering victory on opponents turf, at which India is no good. Moreover, Harbhajan is a bright prospect and its time for youngsters to enter the battle.

But Kumble should continue to be the part of eleven for some more time, at least at home, as he has been a proven match-winner in such conditions. This would be the good time for youngsters to seek lessons from him.

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Name:Mohammad Ather Comment:Kumble is still a match winner. It so tragic that his critics are using his outstanding bowling performance on Indian wickets to creticise his performance on overseas wickets. I would like to ask these people to name the spinner who has excelled on overseas wickets? Kumble is a national treasure and a captainship material. When Ganguly can keep his place on his current performance why can't Kumble? He has still got plenty of venom left in his bowling. Don't embarras this great cricketer.

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Name:A.Haldar Comment:He was never a great bowler! We made him great by providing underprepared pitches! That was harmful to Kumble. If he does get these kind of pitch all the times, why he should try improve his bowling? Why he should try new things and lots of varitions in his bowling?

We saw that Ramnaraine (The West Indian spinner) can be deadly while our spinners were not. This shows the quality of a bowlers. I do not know why Gavaskar and Holding are shouting so much for Kumble? Holding may have some interest!

Let us accept reality, in alien conditions we do not have good spinners except in ODIs. So kumble is not finished! He is what he was. We made him great and now we are thinking of finishing him. As a spinner, he needs a lot to improve, this is applicable for our all bowlers! Let us not try to finish Kumble, but focus on real issue.