Loved bowling against Australia, Aussies didn't sledge me as I was a friend of Shane Warne: Anil Kumble

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New Delhi, Nov 26: Sledging and verbal spats between the players always take a front seat whenever India and Australia play international cricket matches. But former India captain and spin legend Anil Kumble believes he was never sledged by the Aussies in his playing days.

Kumble, the newly appointed Head Coach of Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), in a candid chat with the franchise said since he was good friends with Australian spin legend Shane Warne he was never sledged by the Aussies.

"No, I don't remember much. What I've heard is 'if you are a friend of Shane Warne, you never get sledged'. I was a friend of Shane Warne, so I didn't get sledged," Kumble explained.

When asked about which team he loved to bowl the most, Kumble -- who is a leading wicket-taker for India in Tests (619 wickets in 132 Tests) -- said, "I think as a bowler you'd want to bowl against everyone. It's a challenge (bowling against each team). But bowling against Australia (I loved the most), because at that time they were the best side international cricket. You would want to showcase what you can do and what you can achieve against the best in the business and that something I took up as a challenge and that's wonderful to have many battles against the Aussies. And fortunately for me, I never had to worry about bowling at a (Sachin) Tendulkar, against a (Virender) Sehwag, or a (VVS) Laxman or (Rahul) and (Sourav) Ganguly. So, I didn't have to worry too much before a match saying 'O God, I have to bowl at these guys. Fortunately, I had them on my team."

When asked who gave him the nickname of Jumbo, the former India captain, who went on to coach the national side, was quick to name his former India teammate Navjot Singh Sidhu.

Talking about the three funniest guys in the Indian dressing room during his playing days, the Karnataka cricketer said, "The three characters would be (Javagal) Srinath, the other one is Bhajji (Harbhajan Singh) and Vinod Kambli. These three guys were the characters you need in a team."

The legendary off-spinner said he and his fellow Karnataka cricketer Rahul Dravid were the most serious of them all and added they were the ones who maintained the balance within the dressing room.

"Probably I and Rahul (Dravid) were the more serious ones. You need a bit of balance, you don't want only Yuvis (Yuvraj Singh) and Bhajjis, you need Kumbles and Dravids as well (to maintain the balance). You only had Yuvis and Bhajjis in the Playing XI, you can imagine the racket that they would create," said the 49-year-old.