Anil Kumble's Profile

Anil Kumble is a well known spin bowler and former Indian national cricket team member and captain of the Indian Test cricket team.

He was born 17^th October, 1970 in Bangalore, Karnataka to KN Krishna Swamy and Saroja. Kumble has a brother named Dinesh. He is nicknamed Jumbo not only because his deliveries, for a spinner, are "as fast as a Jumbo jet", but also because his feet are quite big or Jumbo as observed by his team-mates.

He is a primeraily fine right arm leg spinner bowler and right hand batsman.

Kumble married to Chethana Ramatheertha and now he has three children – daughter Aaruni (from Chethana’s previous marriage), Mayas (Son) and the youngest daughter Svasti.

As a kid he joined a Cricket Club named Young Cricketers. He was a very brilliant student and finished his Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering from Rashtreeya Vidyalaya College of Engineering, Bangalore in the year 1991-92.

He started playing First Class Cricket for Karnataka team with a match against Hyderabad in the year 1989, and managed to grab 4 wickets in the match.

Anil made his debut in the One Day International (ODI) Cricket with the Australasia Cup tournament at Sharjah in the year 1989-90, in a match against Sri Lanka. He took 1 wicket in this match, and gave 42 runs.

His Test Cricket career began with a Test Series against England played at Manchester in August 1990. Anil took 3 wickets and gave 105 runs in 43 overs out of which 7 were maiden ones.

Anil Kumble was appointed the captain of the Indian Test cricket team on 8 November 2007. His first assignment as captain was the three-test home series against Pakistan that India won 1-0.

He is one of only three bowlers to have taken more than six hundred test wickets.

Currently he is a leading wicket taker and third highest wicket taker in Test Cricket. He won many Man of The Series and Man of The Match awards.

Kumble took his first fifty test wickets in just ten test matches. He is an Indian fastest bowler had achieved this milestone.

He is one of only two bowlers in the history of cricket to have taken all 10 wickets in a test innings, the other being Jim Laker of England. He achieved this rare feat in February 1999 in a Test match played against Pakistan in Delhi.

He has also taken part in Indian Premier League matches in Royal Challangers Bangalore team.

Throughout his Test Cricket career, Anil Kumble played 132 Test matches in which he managed to grab 619 wickets at the loss of 18355 runs, with an average of 29.65 runs. During his Test career he scored 2506 runs with an average of 17.77 runs. His highest score in Test Cricket was 110 not out.

As far as One Day International (ODI) Cricket is concerned, Anil played 271 ODI matches throughout his career in which he took 337 wickets giving away 10412 runs with an average of 30.80 runs. He scored 938 runs with an average of 10.53 runs in the ODI matches he played, his highest score being 26.

Anil Kumble played his last ODI match against Bermuda at Port of Spain on 19th of March, 2007. In this match, he took 3 wickets and gave away 38 runs.

After playing for India for 18 years, he announced his retirement on 2 November 2008. His last match was against Australia at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi. In this match, Anil took 3 wickets, and gave away 126 runs combining both the innings.

Anil Kumble was awarded the Padma Shri, India's 4th highest civilian honour, by the Government of India in 2005. Arjuna award, a sports award from the Government of India, in 1995 and one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year, in 1996.

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Very Very Special Laxman's profile

Vangipurappu Vekata Sai Laxman, popularly known as V.V.S. (Very Very Special) Laxman by his fans, is an Indian Cricket player. He was born on 1st November, 1974, in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Laxman is a star cricketer and great batsman of India. He is a right handed middle order batsman and sometimes bowls off spin.

Apart from the Indian Test and One Day International Cricket teams, he has represented Hyderabad and Lancashire teams and captained the Deccan Charges team in the IPL Twenty-20 tournament 2008.

He studied Medical Science for a short period of time but quit it later to play professional Cricket in a full fledged way. He received his preliminary education at Little Flower High School, Hyderabad.

Laxman
with his wife
Gudipati RaghavaSailaja

His father and mother both are doctors. He married to Gudipati Raghava Sailaja. They have a son and a daughter.

Laxman is a right handed batsman and is famous for hitting spin bowlers mercilessly and maneuvering the ball with ample use of his wrists to the desired corner of the ground. Interestingly, Laxman has delivered his best performance for a maximum number of times against the Australian Cricket team both in Test and ODI matches.

The beginning of Laxman’s Test Cricket career was made in the year 1996 with a Test match against South Africa played at Ahmedabad.

His innings of 281 against Australia in 2001 was ranked sixth in Wisden's list of 100 great Test innings in history

Interestingly he made his debut in One Day International (ODI) Cricket with a duck (zero score) in a match against Zimbabwe in the year 1998, and finished his ODI career again with a duck in a match against South Africa in the year 2006.

In his One Day International (ODI) Cricket career, Laxman played 86 matches and scored a total of 2338 runs including 6 centuries and 10 half-centuries. His ODI Batting Average was 30.76 runs, with the highest score being 131 runs.

He has played over hundred tests for India during his cricket career, but unfortunately he didn’t play cricket in Cricket World Cup 2011.

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Kapil Dev's profile

Kapil Dev Ramlal Nikhanj is a former leading cricketer and captain of the Indian national cricket team. He was born on 6th January 1959 in Chandigarh. He is better known from his short name as Kapil Dev. He was famously known from his nickname "Haryana Hurricane".

Kapil Dev was right handed batsman and right arm fast medium bowler. He was valued as one of the greatest cricket players and all rounder for all time.

He debuted the Test Cricket with a match played against Pakistan at Faisalabad in the year 1978. During the 3rd Test match played at Karachi, he scored the fasted half-century made by any Indian cricketer off just 33 balls.

Kapil’s One Day International (ODI) debut was made on 1st of October 1978 in a match played against Pakistan at Quetta. He scored 13 runs and took 1 wicket giving 27 runs in the match. He made his last one day international debut against West Indies in year 1994.

Kapil Dev had great skills of aggressive bating, and he was a main strike bowler through most of his careers. He captained India winning cricket world cup of the year 1983. He has operated as coach to the Indian cricket team for 10 months between October 1999 and August 2000, but resigned after match fixing allegations were imposed upon him.

In his Test Cricket career, Kapil Dev played 131 Test matches in which he scored 5248 runs with a Batting Average of 31.05 runs. His highest score was 163 runs. As far as bowling is concerned, he took 434 wickets in the Test Cricket, and gave away 12867 runs with an average of 29.64 runs.

Kapil played 225 ODI matches throughout his career, and scored 3783 runs with an average of 23.79 runs, his highest score being 175 not out. He took 252 wickets, and gave 6945 runs with an average of 27.45 runs in his ODI career.

Kapil Dev wedded to Romi in the year 1980, and they have a daughter Amiya Dev.

Kapil Dev awarded "Indian Cricketer of the Century" by Wisden in the year 2002. He was radically noted for his right arm pace bowling and exceptional out swinger.

He broke Richard Hadlee's record of 431 wickets in Test cricket and scored first ODI century by an Indian. Kapil Dev played an excellent role in difficult situations and helped to the Indian cricket team to attack against opponent.

He has been conferred upon with Arjuna Award, Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awards by the Government of India.

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Sreesanth's profile

Sreesanth is an Indian cricketer. He is primarily a right arm fast medium pace bowler.

Sreesanth was born on 6^th February, 1983 in Kothamangalam, Kerala state in India.

His full name is "Shanthakumaran Sreesanth". His nicknames are Sree and Gopu. He is known to bowl at speeds 142 kmph.

He was a leg spinner in his childhood. He was inspired by Anil Kumble. Later he turned as a face bowler. He plays domestic cricket for Kerala.

His brother-in-law Madhu Balakrishnan is a famous singer.

Sreesanth highness is 5.8ft. He is a first Kerala Ranji player to play Twenty20 cricket for India.

Sreesanth was a break-dancer and had become a national champion in break dance event.

Sreesanth made his One Day International debut against Sri Lanka at Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur on 25th October, 2005.

He impressed in the ODI series against New Zealand in 2010, taking seven wickets in two matches.

He made his test premiere against England England at Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur - Mar 01, 2006.

On Dec 01, 2006he played his first T20 International match against South Africa at New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg.

Sreesanth is associated with the Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League 2008 - 2010.

Within a very short span of time, Sreesanth has firmly established himself as one of the main weapons in India's pace armory.

He can be expensive in one-dayers, but is also a wicket-taking bowler.

He called up as a replacement player for Praveen Kumar for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.

FORMAT	Vs	VENUE	DATE
ODIS	Sri Lanka	Nagpur	Oct 25, 2005
TESTS	Sri Lanka	Nagpur	Mar 01, 2006
T20	South Africa	Johannesburg	Dec 01, 2006

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Saurav Ganguly's profile

Sourav Chandidas Ganguly is born on 8^th July, 1972 in Calcutta (now Kolkata), and is the youngest son of Chandidas and Nirupa Ganguly. Born into an affluent family, Ganguly was introduced into the world of cricket by his elder brother Snehasish.

He started his career by playing in state and school teams. Currently, he is the 5th highest run scorer in ODIs and was the 5th person in history to cross the 10,000 run landmark and only the 2nd Indian to cross that landmark after Sachin Tendulkar. Wisden ranked him the sixth greatest one day international (ODI) batsman of all time, next to Viv Richards, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Dean Jones and Michael Bevan.

After a series of plays in different Indian domestic tournaments such as the Ranji and Duleep trophies, Ganguly got his big-break while playing for India on their tour of England. He scored 131 runs and cemented his place in the Indian team. Ganguly's place in the team was assured after successful performances in series against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Australia, winning the Man of the Match awards. In the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he was involved in a partnership of 318 runs with Rahul Dravid, which remains the highest overall partnership score in the World Cup tournament history.

Due to the match-fixing scandals in 2000 by other players of the team, and for his poor health, Indian captain Sachin Tendulkar resigned his position, and Ganguly was made the captain of the Indian cricket team. He soon received media criticism after an unsuccessful stint for county side Durham and for taking off his shirt in the final of the 2002 Natwest Trophy. He led India into the 2003 World Cup final, where they were defeated by Australia.

Ganguly was awarded the Padma Shri in 2004, India's fourth highest awards.

He was selected to play in the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

Ganguly joined the Kolkata Knight Riders team as captain for the Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket tournament in 2008. The same year, after a home Test series against Australia, he announced his retirement from cricket. After his retirement, Ganguly continued to play for the Bengal team and was appointed the chairman of the Cricket Association of Bengal's Cricket Development Committee.

The left-handed Ganguly was a prolific One Day International (ODI) batsman, with over 11,000 ODI runs to his credit. He is India's one of the most successful Test Captain to date, winning 21 out of 49 test matches. An aggressive Captain, Ganguly is credited with having nurtured the careers of many young players who played under him.

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Baroda Bomber: Yusuf Pathan's profile

Yusuf Khan Pathan is born on 17^th November, 1982 in Baroda. He is an Indian cricketer. He is a powerful and aggressive right-handed batsman and a right-arm offbreak bowler. His brother Irfan Pathan is also an Indian cricketer.

Yusuf Pathan made his debut in first-class cricket in 2001/02. Following his impressive performances in the 2007 Deodhar Trophy and the Inter-state domestic Twenty20 competition held in April 2007, Pathan was made a part of the Indian squad for the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship, held in South Africa in September 2007. He made his Twenty20 international debut in the final against Pakistan. He opened the batting for India in the match, and scored 15 runs in the process.

He was signed by the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League for USD 475,000 (INR 1.9 crore). In the 2008 IPL season, he scored 435 runs and took 8 wickets. He recorded the season's fastest half century (from 21 balls) against the Deccan Chargers.

Following his good showing in the IPL, he was selected for the Indian ODI team. Yusuf had made his One-Day International debut for India against Pakistan at Dhaka on 10 June 2008. He became a regular feature of the national One-Day International team, but has yet to make his test debut.

In the final of the 2010 Duleep Trophy cricket tournament, Pathan scored a hundred in the first innings and a double hundred in the second and led his team West Zone to a three wicket win over South Zone. Pathan made 108 in the first innings and an unbeaten 210 from 190 balls in the second innings. This became a world record in cricket for the highest successful run chase in first class cricket history.

On 13 March 2010, Pathan scored a century off 37 balls, in an Indian Premier League match against Mumbai Indians. The innings also included record 11 consecutive hits to the boundary (6, 6, 6, 6, 4, 4, 6, 4, 4, 4, 4).

On 7 December 2010, Yusuf Pathan smashed an unbeaten 123 from 96 balls and shared an unbroken 133-run partnership with Saurabh Tiwary to guide India to a huge target of 316 with seven balls to spare and give the hosts a 4-0 lead in the series.He was named man of the match. The all-rounder clubbed seven fours and seven sixes on the way to his maiden one-day century to help the hosts overhaul New Zealand's challenging 315-7 with seven balls to spare at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.

In the 2011 IPL auction, he was bought for $2.1 million by Kolkata Knight Riders.

	Vs	VENUE	DATE
ODIS	Pakistan	Dhaka	Jun 10, 2008
T20	Pakistan	Johannesburg	Sep 24, 2007

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The Turbanator: Harbhajan Singh profile

Harbhajan Singh is born 3 July 1980 into a lower middle class Punjabi family in Jalandhar, Punjab, India. He is an Indian cricketer. A specialist bowler, he has the second-highest number of Test wickets by an off spinner behind Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan.

One of his common nicknames, outside India, is The Turbanator, deriving from his skill as a bowler in terminating the innings of the opposing team, and the fact that, as a Sikh, he wears a black turban whenever he plays. Among Indians, Harbhajan is more commonly known as bhajji.

He is the only son of Sardar Sardev Singh, a businessman who owned a ball bearing and valve factory. Growing up with five sisters, Harbhajan was in line to inherit the family business, but his father insisted that he concentrate on his cricket career and represent India.

Harbhajan was trained as a batsman by his first coach Charanjit Singh Bhullar, but converted to spin bowling after his coach's untimely death saw him turn to the tutelage of Davinder Arora. Arora credits Harbhajan's success to a work ethic that included a three hour training session in the morning, followed by an afternoon session lasting from 3 pm until after sunset.

Following the death of his father in 2000, Harbhajan became the family head, and as of 2001, had organised marriages for three of his sisters.

Harbhajan made his Test debut in the Third Test against Australia in Bangalore, where he scored 4 not out and a duck, and recorded the modest match figures of 2/136 as Australia won the match by eight wickets.

He made his ODI debut against New Zealand. He took 1/32 from ten overs on debut as India narrowly won by 15 runs.

His career was initially beset by investigations into the legality of his bowling action and disciplinary incidents that raised the ire of cricket authorities. However in 2001, with leading leg spinner Anil Kumble injured, Harbhajan's career was resuscitated after Indian captain Sourav Ganguly called for his inclusion in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy team. In that series victory over Australia, Harbhajan established himself as the team's leading spinner by taking 32 wickets, becoming the first Indian bowler to take a hat trick in Test cricket.

Following his performance against Australia in 2001, the Government of Punjab awarded him Rs. 5 lakh, a plot of land, and an offer to become a Deputy Superintendent of Police in Punjab Police, which he accepted.

In early 2008, he was given a ban by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for racially vilifying Andrew Symonds. The ban was revoked upon appeal, but in April, Harbhajan was banned from the 2008 Indian Premier League and suspended from the ODI team by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for slapping Sreesanth after a match.

He was conferred the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour, in 2009.

FORMAT	Vs	VENUE	DATE
TESTS	Australia	Bangalore	Mar 25, 1998
ODIS	New Zealand	Sharjah	Apr 17, 1998
T20	South Africa	Johannesburg	01 Dec, 2006

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