5 cricketers who bid goodbye too soon

Sachin Tendulkar played at the top of his game for 24 yearsLike every sport, cricket is a game where a lot of factors are involved in the longevity of a player; every player does not stay at the top of the tree for 24-odd years like Sachin Tendulkar.Discipline, skills, enhancing those skills are just a few of the factors that carries one through, there are others as well. There are also cricketers who leave the scene early for various reasons again.Ideally, a player likes to throw in the towel when he has accomplished most of his dreams or is at the peak of their game, but this is my personal take where I feel a player plays on until his bones give up.There have been instances in the past where a player has just signed off vaguely; probably we unanimously felt that they have the pedigree to last a couple of more seasons. These are cases where one gets flummoxed, at least their fans get. I am not a fan, just a cricket writer.The criterion or the parameter here is not age completely, but the form and the potential of carrying on further is what is being taken into account. Here are five such cases which we felt were curious enough to feature in this listicle.

#1 Sourav Ganguly

Ganguly had a few years of cricket left in him

Known as the ‘Maharaja’ Sourav Ganguly is one of the most successful Indian captains ever. He took over at a stage when India was going rough patch with match-fixing haunting every cricket fan, cricket was in turmoil so to say.

He was the turnaround man halting the Aussie run at Eden Gardens in 2001, a Test which probably marks the A.D and B.C of Indian cricket. He then marshalled his troops to the finals of the 2003 World Cup.

Then the slide started once Greg Chappel stepped into India as coach. Ganguly is also one of India’s most prolific run-getters with 11,363 and 7212 runs with 22 and 16 tons in One Day Internationals and Tests respectively.

Ganguly was dropped after some poor performances in 2006 but was again included for the Protean series where he proved his touch by becoming the highest scorer in Tests and then he amassed consecutive tons in Tests against Pakistan at home.

Again, he was sidelined for the CB ODI series. Finally, he announced his retirement a tad too early, two days before the first Test versus Australia at home. He might have had a couple of years of solid International cricket left in him.

#2 Graeme Smith

Graeme Smith was arguably the best South African Test captain

Graeme Smith became one of the youngest captains for South Africa and then he left the game at the age of 33. This was not the age when someone of the stature of Graeme Smith should have retired, considering the fact that he served South Africa for more than a decade.

He was phenomenal in the Test arena with 9265 runs at an average of 48.25 and 27 tons, one would have felt that he still had good cricket left in him, but he had made up his mind before the third Test against Australia at Newlands.

Ironically that was the worst series of his career where he managed just 45 runs in six innings. He probably had resigned in his mind and wanted to say bye to the game of cricket in his own backyard and he did just that. One will still feel that he could have easily played in the 2015 World Cup.

#3 Mushtaq Ahmed

Mushtaq Ahmed retired too early, for a spinner

After Abdul Qadir from Pakistan, Mushtaq Ahmed was the next best leg-spinner by a distance. For a spinner, longevity is not a big concern like fast bowlers because the toll on the body is much lesser.

Ahmed, they say, modelled his action on Qadir which is true. He called it a day very early, one feels, as he was just 32 then, with at least a good three seasons left in him. He played 52 Tests and emerged with a total of 185 wickets.

One also has to consider the bowlers Pakistan had back then; there were the two W’s – Waqar and Wasim – and Saqlain Mushtaq was the offie they had in their ranks, so the wickets were invariably shared.

In fact, he was in supreme form when he left the game. In the county championship, he became the only bowler in five years to scalp 100 wickets in a season, helping Sussex to a historic win. Joining the un-fancied ICL was what got him out of favour but this match-winner with umpteen variations could have gone on for a while longer.

#4 Brendan Taylor

Brendan Taylor carried the Zimbabwe cricket team for years

This is the biggest casualty in this list. Brendan Taylor played for Zimbabwe at a time when cricket in that nation seemed to be getting extinct. He started at an early age and was a run-machine. He left the scene very early, at the age of 29.

Purists say this is the age when a batsman plays his best cricket but unfortunately, from the Zimbabwean point of view, he left. Taylor was part of a team where he was a total mismatch, it was like the 90’s when one felt once Sachin Tendulkar is out it is over for team India that is exactly the kind of pressure he carried.

He played 23 Tests and 167 One Day Internationals scoring 1493 and 5258 runs at an average of 34.72 and 34.82. The numbers do not show the real picture as one has to understand the amount of pressure he had on him every time he walked out to bat. It is ironical that he left the game when he was at the peak of his powers; he had scored consecutive tons before calling it quits.

#5 Jonathan Trott

Trott retired early because of reasons other than just cricket

Jonathan Trott may not have been the best ever to represent England but he, for a brief period, became their most reliable batsman. Trott left the game at the age of 32, similar to Smith, but came back to play against West Indies after 18 months only to retire again and bring down the shutters soon.

Similar to Kevin Pietersen he was a South African-born who played for England. His record is supreme; he has played 52 Tests and 68 ODIs scoring 3835 and 2819 at a staggering average of 44.08 and 51.25 respectively.

It was not as if he was woefully out-of-form. Stress took a toll on him and he was forced to call it a day. Trott had at least a couple of more seasons left in him, one would feel.