'Cricket defined me'

Anil Kumble is the second bowler to pick all 10 wickets in a Test innings.

Cricket is everything to me, it defined me and whatever I am today is thanks to this sport.

When we were growing up, all of us used to look up to Sportstar, the weekly magazine then. You would dream about being on its cover. The magazine had high quality pictures, good features and yes there was focus on cricket as it was the number one sport. But for us cricketers, Sportstar also made us aware about athletes in other sports. Be it tennis, table tennis, athletics or hockey, we got to know about our peers in those sections.

There wasn’t much regional football then but even that was covered. Back then Sportstar was the only source of information and coverage on varied sports and its leading players. I used to enjoy the interviews in the magazine and it turning 40 is indeed an important milestone.

(As told to K. C. Vijya Kumar)