Three years ago, if I had told someone that Misbah could still continue to play for 3 more years, I
would had been laughed at and mocked. Infact, people din't even expect him to last till the Champions Trophy, let alone till playing till the age of 40. The Same old discussion was bought up every now and then, "we need a young captain" “Misbah won't be there for World Cup 2015” “Misbah needs to make way for a youngster”
Infact, Misbah himself was about to hang his boots even before the Champions Trophy,
as he was being offered a 2 year lucrative deal by Worcestershire. A flat and a jaguar car was also thrown in to the deal, plus a single year extention.
At one hand he had the option of not only playing for Pakistan but also captaining the National team ,which itself is an honor, while on they other hand he had a lucrative dealoffer, with Job Security, which you can't expect in Pakistan Cricket's National team.
When you are 38 years of age, your position in Pakistan National Cricket team is only alive till the time your form is alive, as soon as your form is gone, your spot from the national team also vanishes and you end up finding yourself back in the domestic set up and then later on being forced to retire.
Misbah surprisingly choose the former option, and 8 months later, he emerged not only as the highest scorer in ODI cricket for the year 2013, but also the highest scorer for all formats combined.
As Misbah touches the 40th mark today, he has proved to the world that age is just a “number” and you can't allow a number from stopping you to play.
Whether you love him or hate him, like him or loath him, that based upon your own personal opinion about him. But atleast we all could agree to one thing, that no matter how he plays, Misbah is in the form of his life at the age of 40 and breaks all myths about 30+ age being a constrain for cricketers from performing.
This itself motivates many of those players who are still playing domestic cricket in their 30s and hoping for a spot in the national team. This motivates people like me, to let me complete my study and have a shot at cricket. This motivates those people to move forward who are making a late break through in domestic cricket.
To sum it all up, here is a quote from Misbah-Ul-Haq from last year
"12 years ago on my test debut I was being told that I only have two to three years of cricket left............Today, I'm 39 and i'm still listening the same"-Misbah-Ul-Haq
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