Never got sledged by Aussies as I was Shane Warne’s friend, reveals Anil Kumble

The seasoned Indian spinner was a part of the Golden era in cricket and faced the strongest of the Australian sides, under Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting. For what started with the heat between Waugh and Sourav Ganguly, the intensity of the rivalry had touched high levels. Of course, sledging was a huge part of it and so were the controversies. Like the one everybody knows- the ‘Monkeygate’. 

However, Kumble revealed that despite all the sledgings the Aussies were famous for he was never subjected to it as a privilege of being the legendary Shane Warne’s friend. Kumble, who was the captain of the side during the controversial 2007-08 tour of Australia, shared that if anyone from the opposition was friends with Warne then you’d be immune to sledging. It was like an unsaid rule in their team that no one would sledge Warne’s mates.

“No, I don’t remember much. What I’ve heard is ‘if you are a friend of Shane Warne, you never get sledged’. I was a friend of Shane Warne, so I didn’t get sledged,” Kumble told Kings XI Punjab in an interview.

The legendary Indian legspinner, who loved challenges, also revealed that he loved bowling against the strong Aussie side, as it always uplifts a bowler for what he achieves against the best in business.

“I think as a bowler you’d want to bowl against everyone. It’s a challenge (bowling against each team). But bowling against Australia (I loved the most), because at that time they were the best side international cricket. You would want to showcase what you can do and what you can achieve against the best in the business and that something I took up as a challenge and that’s wonderful to have many battles against the Aussies,” Kumble asserted.

“And fortunately for me, I never had to worry about bowling at a (Sachin) Tendulkar, against a (Virender) Sehwag, or a (VVS) Laxman or (Rahul) and (Sourav) Ganguly. So, I didn’t have to worry too much before a match saying ‘O God, I have to bowl at these guys. Fortunately, I had them on my team."