Surprising retirements of 2013 in cricket

If you talk about retirement in cricket, 2013 will be remembered forever. It saw Sachin Tendulkar – The God of Cricket, Michael Hussey, Graeme Swann and Chris Martin put curtains down in their glorious international cricket career.

Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar

The second Test match against West Indies on 14th November 2013 was The Master Blaster’s last international match for India. Even though the entire nation knew this day would come soon but the announcement about Tendulkar’s retirement left everyone sad.

After the disastrous tour of India in England and Australia in 2011-12, senior players were the targets of Indian media. Those defeats were followed by another defeat against the English side—and to make this worst they were humiliated by Alastair Cook and Co. in India itself. Even this phase did not make Tendulkar weak, and he decided to ignore all that was said about him and continue to play. Because according to him there was cricket still left in him.

Finally came the moment when the Little Master decided to call the day off in cricket— October 10th. He played his last IPL and Champions League this year. So this means, 2013 was the last year when Sachin Tendulkar came on the field officially as a player.

Michael Hussey

Michael Hussey

Australia was shaken within a gap of 30 days last year. On 29^th November, 2012 Rickey Ponting announced his retirement which was followed by Hussey’s on the Boxing Day. Mr. Cricket played his last match for Australia on January 3rd which was against Sri Lanka. He has scored 6,235 runs playing 79 Test matches, being the most dependable batsman for Australia like Rahul Dravid was for India.

He had planned to continue with the limited over’s cricket for the rest of the season but surprisingly he was dropped by the Australian selectors keeping the 2015 World Cup in mind. They wanted to experiment with new players like Phillip Hughes and Usman Khawaja. After Hussey and Ponting retired, Australian cricket went through a transition phase with all youngsters and Michael Clarke being the only experienced man.

Chris Martin

Chris Martin

This Blackcaps’ fast bowler announced his retirement on July 3rd. He has always been an important part of the national team—played 71 Test matches and getting 233 dismissals. Martin has 18 victims in 20 appearances in the 50-50 format of the game. The Auckland Aces pacer was the part of New Zealand’s famous win Down Under, Hobart in 2012.

He quit the game as the third highest wicket-taker for his country. Seeing the fabulous 15 year long career of Martin, Blackcaps would miss a bowler of his quality.

Graeme Swann

Graeme Swann

2013-14 Ashes has been an intense series so far, especially for the English team. After Jonathan Trott flew back due to stress-related issues, it’s now time for another cricketer from England to give up. Swann has been the only dependable spinner of the English for more than a decade.

In a recent interview he said that he had made the decision in the halfway of the Perth test. He cannot bowl for 30-40 overs in an innings and repeat that again in the next innings. Swann has played 60 international Test matches and taken 255 wickets. Test cap 641 for England has just given five years to the national team but in this short time he has become one of the key players for the English.

He had a huge role to play in both the series against India which England won in 2011-12.

Now in this tough phase for the England team they will have to get a replacement for Swann and that is going to be a tough task for them.