Cricketers’ Early Retirement

Friends you all know cricket is a game of uncertainties, one does not what will happen next, and the same thing applies to cricketers also. Cricketers go through lots of ups and downs throughout their careers. There have been many cricketers whose careers faced the saddest of endings. Here is the list of eight cricketers who faced a tragic end to their careers, in reality, they could have played for many more years.

1 Navjot Singh Sidhu:

He is a person, who is always high on emotions, and his retirement was very saddening. Being emotional, once during a tour of England in the 90s, he left the team and came back to India, the reason being he was dropped from playing eleven. Well, if reports are to be believed then he was left heartbroken when Wadekar (Coach of the team) called him unfit and replaced him with another player. As per another report, Azharuddin made sure that he does not qualify for the World Cup team. It is still not clear whether Sidhu failed his team or his team failed him, and why he did farewell to the game.

2 VVS Laxman:

No one knows what made this cricketing legend hang his boots. As per sources, he failed to give the best of his abilities during India’s tour of Australia in 2011, where he scored only two half-centuries in eight innings. After this tour, he was badly criticized and even the media and the cricket fraternity started telling him that it was time for him to retire. He took this criticism very seriously and was so heartbroken that he decided to bid farewell to the game.

3 Kevin Pieterson:

He was called “England’s greatest modern batsman’ by the Guardian and ‘the most complete batsman in cricket’ by Times. He left everyone in surprise when he announced his retirement from cricket in 2018. His sudden decision of bidding farewell to the game left his fans emotional and heartbroken. In his long post, KP thanked his fans as well as his family for supporting him throughout his career. He expressed that it was time for him to prioritise his family.

4 James Taylor:

He was one of the finest fielders, however, his cricketing career ended up on a sad note as he was forced to bid farewell to his cricketing career due to his heart condition “arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy”. His health condition limited his career and he decided to hang his boots at the age of just 26.

5 Henry Olonga:

He was a fast bowler from Zimbabwe and was one of those players, whose career ended early. During 2003 world Cup, Henry wore a black band on his wrist to protest against the death of democracy in Zimbabwe. However, this complicated things for him, in fact, authorities from his country had come to arrest him. Following this, he announced his retirement.

6 Jonathan Trott:

England’s former top order batsman, Jonathan, gave in to the pressure and stress of the game. After losing a series in West Indies in 2015, he announced his retirement from the game. Later, Trott revealed that he took this decision because of anxiety issues and unmanaged stress.

7 Mohd. Kaif:

He was one of the finest fielders during his playing time. He has given many memorable performances for Team India and has rescued the team in important matches. However, under Greg Chapell’s coaching, the batting lineup went through some changes and was dropped out of the 2007 World up. He was only 26 when he played his last international match and retired from all the formats of the game.

8 Mark Boucher:

South African Wicket Keeper Batsman. During one of the matches, Imran Tahir bowled a googly that hit the stumps and caused bail to fly, and the bail hit the eye of Boucher. This incident ended his career, he was taken to the hospital and was later diagnosed with a lacerated eyeball.

So these were some cricketers who had to take early retirement for one reason or the other.

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Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

13^th May 2022