In course of time, like with the legends, we will remember Kumble by his numbers. They are extraordinary but the picture they paint is beautiful and incomplete. They will not tell you of the dignity with which he played the game, of the integrity he stood for and of the extraordinary respect he carried in the cricketing world; as a bowler but even more so, as a man.

And now a pillar has gone. But these are cricketing pillars, not structural ones, for new pillars will emerge. And Kumble will gradually stand aside, a colossal figure looking benignly on as another takes hesitant steps towards cricketing glory. He will not be short of advice as he had for Harbhajan when with his arm in a sling he attended every day of India’s training camp before the 2001 series against Australia. Even the volatile Harbhajan talks softly and respectfully about Kumble’s contribution.

I have been an open and unabashed fan of Kumble’s and consider myself privileged to have seen this journey from a quiet young man to a quiet giant. At all times he has been tough and relentless but he has also been dignified. As he wiped a tear yesterday, maybe the first tear on a cricket ground, I felt another welling up in a bedroom in another city. A great competitor, a great cricketer and a great man. And a proud Indian.