Anil Kumble is a professional cricket player, who was born on October 17, 1970 in Bangalore, India. He graduated as a mechanical engineer from the Rashtreeya Vidyalaya College of Engineering in 1991-92. He is married to Chetna and they have two daughters, Aaruni and Svasti, and a son Mayas.
Being a talented right-arm leg spin bowler and a right-hand batsman, Anil Kumble played his first Test match for the Indian cricket team on August 9, 1990 against the England team. After Jim Laker of England, he is the only bowler in the history of Test cricket to have taken all the ten wickets in a Test innings. This memorable achievement happened at Delhi in the second Test match against Pakistan in February 1999 and as a remembrance, a traffic circle in Bangalore, his home city, was named after him. He was named the captain of the Indian Test cricket team on November 8, 2007 and guided the side to a 1-0 victory in a three-Test home series against Pakistan. On January 17, 2008, Anil Kumble took his 600th Test wicket against Australia and became the first Indian bowler and the third in the world (after Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne) to have performed such a remarkable feat. With more than six hundred wickets to his credit, Anil Kumble is the second highest wicket taker among leg spinners in Test cricket.
Despite batting in the lower order, Anil Kumble managed to score his first century (after 118 Test matches) in Test cricket against England on August 10, 2007. His innings score of an unbeaten 110 runs helped India to make a good total of 664 in the match.
On April 25, 1990, Anil Kumble made his One Day International (ODI) debut in a match against Sri Lanka. By taking six wickets for twelve runs against the West Indies in an ODI at Calcutta on November 27, 1993, he created a new record. In 1996, Anil Kumble secured 61 ODI wickets at an average of 20.24 and an amazing economy rate of 4.06. Having taken more than 300 ODI wickets, Anil Kumble retired from ODI cricket on March 30, 2007.As of the year 2008, his last ODI was played against Bermuda on March 19, 2007 and his last Test on August 8, 2008 against South Africa.
In the Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 inaugural tournament 2008, Anil Kumble represented the Royal Challengers (RC) Bangalore team. This talented spinner was bought for a sum of $500,000 by the RC Bangalore squad. He played two matches, giving 46 runs and claiming 4 wickets with an economy rate of 5.87.
For his commendable contribution to the sport of cricket, Anil Kumble was honoured with the Arjuna award from the Government of India in 1995. The following year, he received the Wisden Cricketers of the Year award for his good performances as a Northamptonshire team player. His name was shortlisted among the sixteen cricketers for the Wisden Indian Cricketer of the twentieth century in 2002. In 2005, Anil Kumble received the highest civilian honour, the Padma Shri, from the Indian Government for his distinguished contribution to the world of sports.
