The Ashes Series

I posted in July that the First Test had been a compulsive listening experience and so it has been throughout. That draw to begin with, our last two batsmen holding out almost impossibly, the incredible win at Lords for the first time in three quarters of a century, the rain-affected draw at Edgbaston, the appalling surrender to Australian supremacy at Headingly, from which many thought a disheartened England could never climb back, and the dramatic finale at the Oval, Australia’s top batsmen blown away in their first innings by a young man thought likely to lose his place in the team.

Even with an unprecedentedly high score to chase it looked, on a couple of occasions, as if Australia might just do it. But it was over abruptly, around the time of the aperitivo. I felt empty and purposeless for a while, wondering what it was I did before the Ashes started. Ah yes, something about a book.....

Cricket: Anil Kumble

Anil Kumble, the leg spinner and Indian captain has announced his retirement from Test Cricket. Kumble took 619 Test wickets and has a Test century to his name.

In my younger days no one would have believed that the three highest wicket takers could be slow bowlers, but Kumble ends his career behind Muralitharan (756 wickets) who is still playing and Shane Warne (708).

Kumble was renowned for the decent spirit with which he played the game.

Indian cricket

Of the six batsmen who have exceeded 10,000 test runs, three: Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and now Rahul Dravid, are Indian (the last two are still playing). Virender Sehwag, who scored 319 in the latest test, the fastest 300 ever, looks as if he might one day join them. Of the five bowlers to have taken more than 500 test wickets, Anil Kumble, still playing, is on 606.

Oh, and they just bought Jaguar and Land Rover.