Anil Kumble book on photography provides a new 'angle' to Indian cricket

One thought Sachin Tendulkar is a hero but he did once turn into a ‘villain’. In fact a famous villain, and was caught on camera trying to chop off the hands of Anil Kumble. Sounds bizarre?

Well, former skipper Anil Kumble’s book, Wide Angle, showcasing his exploits with the camera, reveals just that.

In one of the team-building exercises held in Bangalore in 2008, the team enacted a scene from Sholay and Tendulkar played the role of ‘Gabbar Singh.’ Kumble was ‘Thakur’ with his hands tied.

The book, a compilation of pictures taken by Kumble during cricket tours, was released on Wednesday by Shane Warne and Kumble himself. The former India captain started taking a camera along with him since he was 17. He has captured some rare pictures that reflect a cricketer’s life beyond the cricket field.

“Anil has always been an avid photographer, and when I see the results in this book, they take me back. ...’as long as I am in the team, you will have no privacy,’ he would say, pointing to his camera and we would laugh. It was wonderful,” Sachin Tendulkar says in his foreword of the book.

Anil pointed out that he enjoyed clicking Javagal Srinath, Vinod Kambli, Venkatapathy Raju and Harbhajan Singh as they presented great off beat moments.

Kumble also managed to get some rare on-field moments, his favourite one being when Tendulkar got his 35th Test century in New Delhi. While cricket takes the centrestage in the book, there are also some amazing wildlife pictures. If one thought that Indian cricket was all about playing and shooting when not playing, Kumble provides a new angle about the Indian players.