Two down - three to go...

So Anil Kumble follows Sourav Ganguly into retirement. It cannot be long before Rahul David follows suit with VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar having a little longer left.

The five of them have shaped Indian cricket for over 15 years and have been responsible for some of the team's greatest performances such as the series win against Australia in 2001, the drawn series in Australia in 2008 and away series wins in the West Indies and England.

Kumble has chosen the perfect time to retire - his body has given up even though he is still mentally ready and willing to keep going. His final overs were typical of the man - not much spin but enough bounce and that unplayable straight one. He can retire happy in the knowledge that he gave everything he had to the game and always put the team first. He looked embarrassed by the attention he received but it was well deserved. If the BCCI have any sense (and I'm not holding my breath) he will be kept involved in the development of India's young players as his experience and sense of fair play are priceless.

MS Dhoni has inherited a team that are in transition and can still beat the best team in the world. The efforts of the Fab Five as they are known in India have seen the team develop over the past decade into world beaters. Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina are two of the players waiting to get into the team and have the talent to do very well. The next year will be an interesting and occasionally difficult time for India but they have the talent to keep challenging the best in the world and MS Dhoni appears to have the backing of everyone in the dressing room.

Dhoni continues his winning streak

India won the second test against Australia today by 320 runs. The victory margin is that big for various reasons:

1. India batted well in the first innings with Ganguly's hundred and Dhoni's 92 getting India past an average score to a good score once Tendulkar had led the way with 88.

2. Australia bowled averagely. Bowling in India is hard. Ask Warne. Lee hasn't played in India before and is dealing with off-field problems and the other bowlers haven't really played test cricket before. Siddle and White are doing very well given their inexperience. Johnson appears to be able to bowl well against and in India but can't take wickets against anyone else. Which is kinda backwards but Ponting isn't going to complain at the moment.

3. Australia batted like idiots. For Watson to rescue the first innings and then Clarke to be the last batsman standing in the second indicates that there are problems. Hayden, Hussey and Ponting are the players you would expect to make hundreds when the team is up against it and they were MIA.

4. Dhoni's luck/karma/good captaincy inspired India and especially the bowlers to improve on their performances in the first test and achieve a deserved win. The bowlers out-performed Australia's attack with the pace of Sharma and Khan and the spin of Misra and Harbajan managing to get good batsmen out.

The first and second tests have shown that test cricket is alive and well despite all the 2020 hype. Here's hoping Australia fix their problems in time for the third test and make it a close series.

Tendulkar's brilliance

Tendulkar has finally gone past Brian Lara's record for the most runs in Test cricket - he now has more than 12000 runs. For the past 19 years Sachin has made almost a billion people happy, sad, frustrated, disappointed and every emotion in between. I missed the early part of his career (being only 2 when he started playing) but by the time I was 6 or 7 I knew all about how brilliant he was and how great he could become.

19 years after he started, Tendulkar is undoubtedly a great player. I'm not going to debate who is better - him, Lara, Bradman, Sobers etc because they are all magnificent. What Tendulkar did that none of the others did however, is start as a 16 year old and grow up in front of a billion people. He remains a normal humble private person despite all the madness that surrounds him - fans, sponsors, TV cameras and the paparazzi that have followed his every step.

People criticised him as he aged and changed his style of play to become more responsible and tried to steer the team towards winning totals. And yet when he was younger they criticised him for not playing responsibly and getting the big scores his team needed. To be able to play as he did under those contradictory demands is unbelievable. Crowds still go wild when comes out to bat and when he gets out they go eerily quiet - the only time you ever hear silence in an Indian cricket ground.

There are too many wonderful innings to discuss but a few stand out in my memory as being extra special. His 241* no against Aus in 2004 at Sydney after a run of poor scores saved his place in the team. It was his first hundred for 14 months. He made 193 at Headingley against England in 2002 and formed a partnership with Sourav Ganguly that was so destructive that Nasser Hussain pleaded for bad light to save his fielders.

Other people will be moe eloquent than I have managed to be but basically at the end of the day all the plaudits and tributes are based around one fact - Tendulkar is brilliant.

Players who take your breath away

Over on the Silly Point donthaveaclue has written about the 10 players who in his opinion annihilate attacks or rip through opposition batting line-ups. I started thinking about who would be in my top 10 and here's the list. Positions 2-10 are rather fluid and players move up and down depending on what mood I'm in.

10. Lance Klusener
In the one day game there have been few people who have been able to finish innings as well as Klusener. He particularly excelled when it came to performing in World Cups and dragged South Africa over the line on several occasions when they seemed down and out.

9. Kevin Pietersen
Switch hits for six, flamingo flicks through midwicket and the Red Bull single to get off the mark. The man is so special they have had to invent names forsome of his shots. He can score quickly in all forms of the game and has a habit of scoring big hundreds. His performances in his debut one day series against South Africa and in the 2005 Ashes are perfect examples of his ability to smash the ball around the ground no matter who is bowling.

8. Herschelle Gibbs
There are few players who would bat well enough for their team to be able to chase 434 in a one day game but Gibbs made 175 from 111 balls and South Africa beat Australia. He has played many innings in a similar fashion no matter what form of the game and the match situation but none better than that.

7. Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose
The ultimate double act. Opening bowlers for the West Indies and the last world class examples (for now) of their feted fast bowlers. 421 wickets between them in the 49 tests they played together shows how they were vital for the West Indies and their ability to continually pick up wickets. Both were genuinely quick and fantastic to watch.

6. Andrew Flintoff
He makes this list thanks to performances with the bat and ball. Highlights of his batting include the 2005 Ashes while his spell to Jacques Kallis at Edgbaston this year was breath-taking to watch.

5. Virender Sehwag
He has become hit and miss recently but still scores at a rate of 99 in one day cricket and 77 in test cricket. His triple hundred off 278 balls against South Africa in Chennai (2008) as well as his 309 against Pakistan in 2004 were wonderful examples of the shots he is capable of playing when in good form.

4. Shane Warne
There are too many unbelievable performances for me to go through. His spell in the 1999 World Cup against South Africa and 40 wickets in the 2005 Ashes are the two that stand out immediately. He made leg spin and cricket cool.

3. Allan Donald
There are few better sights in the game than watching stumps go flying and Donald did that a lot. He would always run in as fast as he could even when the game seemed lost and more often than not made something happen.

2. Sachin Tendulkar
Probably the greatest batsman since Bradman. He can hit balls for boundaries or sixes that lesser mortals would tap for a single or leave alone. 'Nuff said.

1. Adam Gilchrist
In case you hadn't worked it out yet, Gilchrist is my cricketing idol. I would get up at 2 or 3 or 4 in the morning just to watch him bat. Sometimes it would be worth it and other times he’d get out in about five mins after I’d stayed up for 3 hours waiting for him and I’d feel like crying (the only thing I love more than cricket is sleep lol). He was one of the main reasons that Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting could demand his team to try and score at 4 an over to give the bowlers time to bowl sides out twice.

His innings of 201* against South Africa in 2002 was exceptional as was his maiden Test hundred in a game that everyone said Australia couldn’t win. Even when he wasn’t in the greatest form he could tear attacks apart - his 57 ball hundred against England at Perth in 2007 being a great example. As an opener in one day cricket he could win games for Australia almost by himself as his innings in the 2007 World Cup final showed.

I’m waiting to find a player who can make me feel that way about the game again. Others such as Tendulkar come close in my opinion but Gilchrist was one of a kind - the first and so far only player I really idolised.

So that's that. Anyone I've missed or shouldn't have included in your opinion then comment away.