Picture: Fred Savage in The Wonder Years

Many years ago, I got my first cricket bat - a yellow plastic bat. As time went by, I got my cheap quality wood bat and then the Kashmir Willow which was every kid’s dream. However, I kept that plastic bat with me for a number of years. I still feel a rush of blood when I see a photograph of me holding that plastic cricket bat. Some how, I never felt the same with the cricket bats I got later although, without doubt, they were of a much higher quality.

The same goes for sports persons we idolise. We might see many over our life time – some of who will be unquestionably better. However, the newer sportspersons will never leave the same impression on our minds. You forge a bond with the player you see on the television set and the bond inspires you in many multifarious ways in those impressionable years. The sports person becomes a part of you sooner than you can realise.

It is obvious that we will feel sad when the group of sports persons we grew up idolising start retiring one after the other. Nanda Kishore, a sports blogger I love reading whenever he does write, after reading an interview of Sandip Patil says this:

The interview is a routine one, but it is so easy to forget people like Sandip Patil. One of my great regrets is not having watched him at his peak, when he famously took on the likes of Len Pascoe and Bob Willis. Like most Indians who grew up in the eighties, I have watched clips of the 1983 World Cup semis and finals over and over again, and Patil remains a dashing, enigmatic hero, a Jim Morrison kind of figure. Watching that disdainful hoick off Bob Willis that sails over deep square leg gives me the goosebumps everytime…

… So Sandy (Sandip Patil) is 50. Steve Waugh has retired. Boris Becker is in the commentary box or on the Laureus foundation panel. In a couple of weeks or so, Andre Agassi will be just another suburban Dad. I feel old. Actually, I feel fucking ancient.

Why does Nanda Kishore feel old, ancient and disgusted? One by one, he has seen the sports persons he grew up with hang up their boots. So, he is all familiar with this horrid feeling. With the realisation that with Agassi, the last of the pack would have gone, the feeling is painful. Agassi played a large part of his tennis when I grew up as well and with him, the last of the tennis players from my era is gone. I won’t see Sampras, Monica Seles or Andre Agassi play professional tennis live again. I might feel sadder even when Kumble, Lara and Tendulkar finally call it quits because I would have no one from my wonder years playing.

Why do feel so sad? A part of us dies with the retirement of these heroes. That’s why.

On a related note, my remembrances of Agassi and a take on Sampras and the greats can be read here and here respectively.

Signal of intent from McClaren or not, Beckham being dropped makes you ponder over the question which is oft repeated in sport - when should a sports man call it quits? I believe in the general thumb rule - a sports person should retire when the retirement leads people to asking the question why has he retired instead of why not when the person is still playing usually.

Beckham was past the stage of why and it was only a matter of time before his England duties would have finally ended. So, there isn’t much shock over the dropping of Beckham despite timelines and suchlike being written.

There is the bigger picture of there still being enough time for Beckham to make a come back if the young guns don’t come up with the level expected of them. He has had an injury recently, this is a friendly and McClaren hasn’t ruled out the scenario of Beckham making a come back. So, despite the media talk over Beckham being dropped, you cannot be sure if he has had his final bye bye where the national team is concerned.

Personally speaking, I would find it perfect for Beckham and ngland to part ways right now. There is a lot of time for the World Cup. The build up process with the attention shifted from Beckham can start from right now. Between now and the world cup, Euro does exist but with the world cup being of prime importance, why not give some one the experience in the Euro.

The current situation with Beckham can strike a common chord with any sports person in his final years. So a similarity can be forged with a Tendulkar post the cricket world cup 2007 for example. Even right now, there are questions being asked of Tendulkar and people will always do that. It is for the sports persons to make the big statements on the field. As Tendulkar makes his return, I back Tendulkar to make those big statements necessary of him.

What should happen with Tendulkar and India post world cup 2007 will be dependant on a lot of factors, among which will be how many years you think specific players can play for the team and how good they are at the given stage. I would still back Tendulkar to play on and play till world cup 2011 given that cricketers (batsmen particularly) can play in the latter years (cases in point - Inzamam, Brian Lara). That is a question to be pondered over after a few months and not right now though.

What this shows is that despite a lot of voices asking for your retirement, if you believe that you can silence those critics by the sheer weight of your performances, you can carry on despite why not being asked. However, you have to constantly prove yourself and if you do not do that, you cannot grudge some one dropping you from the team despite your records in the past. So, some one can carry one despite people asking why not if he has faith in his ability. If this wasn’t true, great comebacks and performances at the end of the career wouldn’t have happened. For example, Pete Sampras wouldn’t have won his last grand slam.

Whatever the sport, a sports person keeps battling to give in performances day in and day out - trying to defy age as nature catches up. There are always younger and stronger people trying to replace you in the team. It is tough to get into a team and much tougher still to maintain that spot. The battles keep happening not just against your opponents but with the youngsters and yourself as well..

The bye byes are never happy.

Sports magnifies every thing. Every moment inside the sporting arena is looked at and talked about with far greater importance than necessary. The magnifying process also means that terms are used far more charitably than they should. Great is one such over used term. Even the most miserly will agree that Hicham El Guerrouj was a great. I use was because he has announced his retirement. I will not go over the records and accomplishments as they can be found easily on the internet.

From BBC:

“For 16 years, I’ve done sports. Now I want to start a new life. I will return to another world whose horizons I do not know.”

The human aspect of El Guerrouj struck you more than his athletic accomplishments. This is why it was poignant that he cried when he announced his retirement. All sports men and women face this predicament at some point of their careers. For all their lives, they have strived hard to increase effectiveness that extra bit to ride over the rest of the competition. Once sponsors come to back you, the only worry is how I am going to improve performances to leave a mark over contemporaries and in the process, even leave an imprint on history.

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Looks like Afridi has been assured of more security in the test side, or been convinced like a kid is usually, to announce his great come back. He goes one better. He says that he meant that he was retiring for only two weeks!

I said this when Afridi did retire:

Cricinfo’s Osman Samiuddin reports:

Shahid Afridi has announced his `retirement’ from Test cricket. In an announcement that caught most people in Pakistan by complete surprise, Afridi told a local TV channel that he was planning to concentrate only on ODI cricket to ready himself for the World Cup in 2007.

This has the cricket fans perplexed. Shahid Afridi is just 26 years old. He has been superb for Pakistan in both one dayers and tests of late. A case in point - in his last 10 tests, Shahid Afridi has scored 854 runs at an average of 47.44 with 3 hundreds. He has also taken 23 wickets at an average of 33.60. This, after being left in the wilderness for long from the Pakistan national cricket team. You would imagine that Afridi would want to play as much international cricket as he possibly could.

So every one is describing the decision of Shahid Afridi to retire as crazy, shocking, bewildering and every thing in between. I see it slightly differently. Confirmed tests Pakistan play between now and the World Cup are 4 in England and at least 3 in South Africa apart from the home tests versus the West Indies. England and South Africa have pitches which are in sharp contrast to the pitches the sub-continent has. Afridi is absolutely king on flat wickets where the ball is not moving, bouncing and playing cross batted shots is not as easy. But would only this make Afridi sit out?

You have to consider the second important aspect. To defeat England in England, or at least compete, you need solid specialist cricketers. Would an Afridi be preferred over a solid batsman in England? In most likelihood ‘no’. Would the playing XI be stronger by chosing a specialist or an Afridi (whose batting or spin wouldn’t be as effective in England or South Africa)? If there was any one except a Woolmer at the helm, I would be less certain regarding Afridi not playing in England given his recent track record. However, Woolmer is a superb strategist. Woolmer is the real reason Afridi and Akhtar were used so well by Pakistan in the recent past. Woolmer is a key reason why Pakistan is doing so well of late. But that’s another story.

Now Woolmer was instrumental in bringing Afridi back to the Pakistan side. So I would be surprised if Afridi didn’t consult Woolmer before announcing his decision. Even if he didn’t, Afridi had one of two paths to chose from here:

1. Play in the test team and risk being in and out of the side and lose the place by the end of the South African tour - a very real possibility.
2. The path Afridi chose to go with.

Another aspect to consider - in the crazy world of Pakistan cricket, no one is certain of any spot. So a Rameez Raja, a Javed Miandad or any one else can come and go from top level management. A Woolmer (who used Afridi very well in the Pakistan side) may not be there after World Cup 2007. He is contracted till 2007 as things stand.

By announcing his retirement now, Afridi almost certainly ensures himself a return to test cricket as soon as he announces that he is reversing his decision to retire after the 2007 World Cup. Heck, if Michael Jordan can do it, what is Afridi! Loads of people have retired before and made comebacks.

The World Cup will be played in the West Indies - tracks which are usually flat. To support a successful World Cup (sadly runs is supposed to be excitment in cricket nowadays) flat wickets are a given. So Afridi has a good chance of having a decent World Cup 2007 individually.

Afridi is just 26. I will be much more surprised if he doesn’t play another test match in his life than any one who is surprised at him announcing his retirement from tests right now.

Originally published in Desicritics here.

I caught up with Saurav Ganguly, former Indian captain in Calcutta. In the interview, he disclosed that he is retiring from the game. The following are the excerpts from the interview:

Pratyush: When you made your test debut at Lords, every one had written you off.

Saurav Ganguly: Yes. It had also been said that I refused to carry drinks in Australia in 1991-92. It is very easy to write off any one. I have always believed to focus on the task at hand rather than what others have to say. In 1996, I had one inning to prove myself. Had I not score the century, I would most likely have been dropped soon after. I am glad how it panned out.

P: It has been a tremendous career. World Cup final, test series win versus Australia and victory away in Pakistan. Among all these what according to you is your biggest contribution to Indian cricket?

SG: If I had to pinpoint just one thing it would be ‘change of attitude’. From a team which accepted what it got, we transformed into one which would give it back to the opponents. On the field, we tried to make things happen rather than just wait for things to happen by themselves. Losing the World Cup Final is obviously a big disappointment but it took tremendous effort to reach there in the first place. India started winning matches abroad and not just at home. We won tests in Australia, England, West Indies and Zimbabwe. We had to wait for a series win till the Pakistan series. By then it was a question of when and not if we would win a series abroad.

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