Courtesy doesn’t fetch any monetary benefits. It, however, leaves a lasting impression which besides indicating one’s personality, helps in creating and maintaining a certain harmony in the heterogeneous human society we live today.

But courtesy, it seems, doesn’t figure highly among the priorities set for himself by Mr Anil Kumble, the newly appointed Indian Test captain. For a keen observer, it became all too apparent from the way he conducted himself, specially at the post-match ceremony in Bangalore, his hometown, at the end of Pakistan’s recently concluded tour of India.

While it has been slightly more than two weeks since the third and final Test was played in Bangalore between the arch-rivals, Kumble’s temperament — both on and off the field — and at the Bangalore Test prize distribution ceremony did raise a few questions in the minds of the Pakistanis and, perhaps, among few of the Indians as well.

To begin with, the tall leg-spinner maintained a sort of intimidating aloofness about himself during the three-match series, never really making an effort to mingle with the visiting side. This was in total contrast to the behaviour of some of his colleagues such as Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh, and Yuvraj whose excellent camaraderie with the Pakistani players was for everyone to see during the month-long contest.

Kumble gave further credence to his ‘high-handed’ behaviour in Bangalore by making some nasty remarks on the field against the usually cool and ‘friendly’ Mohammad Yousuf. The remarks clearly provoked the prolific middle-order batsman and compelled him to approach the umpire for settlement of the issue.

Later, at the series-ending prize distribution ceremony, the non-chalant Indian captain didn’t even bother to utter a single word of either praise or consolation about his opponents which did raise a few eyebrows in the audience. In the end, only a direct query from moderator Ramiz Raja sort of cornered Kumble to say a few words about Misbah-ul-Haq but his body language clearly suggested his uneasiness at that precise moment.

In sharp contrast to Kumble’s demeaning conduct, acting Pakistan skipper Younis Khan lavishly praised his rivals, whole-heartedly congratulating the Indian team on winning the series besides highlighting their overall supremacy.

Often it is said about the Pakistani players that they need some level of grooming in order to carry themselves like the Indians do or even the Sri Lankans, both on and off the field. But while Younis, who is certainly not as ‘highly educated’ a person as the high-profile IT entrepreneur from Bangalore, spoke according to the decorum that is imperative at such fora where the countries are being represented, Kumble chose to forget all about courtesy.

The 121-Test veteran, perhaps, didn’t think it appropriate to give some credit to his opponents who made superb comebacks in the Kolkata and Bangalore Test matches after allowing India to amass 616 and 626 respectively in their first innings.

His die-hard fans may argue that Kumble’s nonchalance should be overlooked due to his over-excitement at winning his first series as skipper and that too infront of his home crowd, the fact remains that it was still a traditional Pakistan-India contest - possibly Kumble’s last Test against the rivals — and should have brought a better response from the Indian captain.

One must also not forget that Mr Kumble had more than half an hour to prepare for the prize distribution ceremony since bad light had halted play much earlier than the closing time on that last day at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.

On one such prize-distribution ceremony almost two years ago, former Indian all-rounder Ravi Shastri won the Pakistanis over when he said: “You proved yourself to be good ambassadors of your country” as he bade farewell to Inzamam-ul-Haq and Company at Delhi.

For Kumble’s benefit , one could only quote the great Lord Tennyson here who once said to his indifferent charges, ‘Manners cost nothing’.