Corridor of Uncertainty
First Class Captain
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2009
- Runs
- 5,121
- Post of the Week
- 4
When Sampras retires from tennis, he retires. When Michael Jordan retires from basketball, he retires from basketball.
At best, you will see two retirements, one from national team and one from club.
But in cricket, a retirement announcement is just the start of a series of pantomimes.
First you will see a player announcing retirement. He will get a tearful goodbye including a bats salute from opposing team. A generous round of newspaper columns and tributes from fellow players will follow. A series of interviews will be arranged and his words of wisdom will loom large over the beloved sport he has just left.
Then you find out our player is retiring from tests to concentrate on white ball cricket (or vice versa).
After a few years, there will be another retirement announcement made on his behalf where he is hanging up his boots from ODIs. Another tearful round will be unleashed and all exploits remembered once again. Even their tests exploits will be recalled. What a player.
Our player is now only focused on [SUP]making money[/SUP] helping his T20 team win the upcoming 'prestigious' tournament. Finally, after a couple of years, there will be a T20s retirement announcement with the accompanying hullabaloo long into the fading light.
But that's not the end of it. No sir, we are just getting started.
There are retirements to be announced from domestic teams they have played for 3 decades.
And then there is the matter of T20 franchise team.
And God forbid if someone takes retirement back in some format or the other or has announced retirement in anger until the top regime changes or has just faded away.
At this point, we are at a complete loss as to when to cry tears of goodbye for whom, who is still available for what format, who is gone but not gone and who is here but not here.
Not to mention, who is retired and coaching a team in one place, but is still playing in another league where, you guessed it, he is being coached by a player who is retired in this league but playing in another.
No other sport even comes close to giving a player 4 heartfelt farewells and yet applaud them on the pitch at a 5th iteration of the sport as if everything is normal.
Can't wait for Shahid Afridi, Chris Gayle and Eoin Morgan to announce sad retirement from their favorite T10 teams and become coach-players. That will be truly the end of an era(s).
At best, you will see two retirements, one from national team and one from club.
But in cricket, a retirement announcement is just the start of a series of pantomimes.
First you will see a player announcing retirement. He will get a tearful goodbye including a bats salute from opposing team. A generous round of newspaper columns and tributes from fellow players will follow. A series of interviews will be arranged and his words of wisdom will loom large over the beloved sport he has just left.
Then you find out our player is retiring from tests to concentrate on white ball cricket (or vice versa).
After a few years, there will be another retirement announcement made on his behalf where he is hanging up his boots from ODIs. Another tearful round will be unleashed and all exploits remembered once again. Even their tests exploits will be recalled. What a player.
Our player is now only focused on [SUP]making money[/SUP] helping his T20 team win the upcoming 'prestigious' tournament. Finally, after a couple of years, there will be a T20s retirement announcement with the accompanying hullabaloo long into the fading light.
But that's not the end of it. No sir, we are just getting started.
There are retirements to be announced from domestic teams they have played for 3 decades.
And then there is the matter of T20 franchise team.
And God forbid if someone takes retirement back in some format or the other or has announced retirement in anger until the top regime changes or has just faded away.
At this point, we are at a complete loss as to when to cry tears of goodbye for whom, who is still available for what format, who is gone but not gone and who is here but not here.
Not to mention, who is retired and coaching a team in one place, but is still playing in another league where, you guessed it, he is being coached by a player who is retired in this league but playing in another.
No other sport even comes close to giving a player 4 heartfelt farewells and yet applaud them on the pitch at a 5th iteration of the sport as if everything is normal.
Can't wait for Shahid Afridi, Chris Gayle and Eoin Morgan to announce sad retirement from their favorite T10 teams and become coach-players. That will be truly the end of an era(s).
