2012: The year that ended careers

The world did not end in 2012, the Mayans were proved wrong. But 2012 was the end of the world as I know it. Cricket is my passion, the most defining part of my identity and I have watched cricket for quite some years now, and never have I felt so cheated, so disheartened and so upset at the end of a calendar year as I have felt in 2012. All this for one reason, the big R word – RETIREMENT.

2012 has ended the careers of more cricketers I like than the entire last decade! Rahul Dravid, Brett Lee, VVS Laxman, Mark Boucher, Andrew Strauss, Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar, Mike Hussey. Cricket will never again be the same for me!

Picture this – when Australia come to their long won Final Frontier, India, in 2013 for the away stage of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (something they so convincingly hold) and when the first wicket falls for either team, Rahul Dravid and Ricky Ponting WON’T walk in. There will be no VVS Laxman to guide the tail and team home when we falter. Oh and no Mr. Cricket taking on Indian spinners like he eats them for breakfast.

As for all the ODIs against Pakistan and England and Sri Lanka (this comes by default), there will be another opener walking out with Virender Sehwag, no biggie, it happens all the time. But also there will be no wait for the 50th century, no asking ‘Sachin out hua kya, kitna banaya?’ not even ‘India doesn’t win when he scores a century’ because ODI cricket has lost its best exponent. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that SRT will no longer walk out in the Indian Blues ever again.

I have never seen Sachin Tendulkar bat in an ODI match live, even though I’ve seen him bat so many times. Come to think of it, I will never get to see Brett Lee bowl full throttle again unless I go see him in KKR’s Purple. Neither have I seen the greatest Test wicket-keeper batsmen, Mark Boucher, as his career was cut short when he was hurt on the eye in a practice game in England and lost full visibility. And as for my favourite, most respected, Ashes-winning captain Andrew Strauss, there is no way to watch him play again!

All this makes me realize how much cricket lost this year has. And it’s hard to say goodbye. To think that we might not be able to watch the Rahul Dravid cover drive, the Ricky Ponting Pull and Hook, the Sachin Tendulkar Straight Drive, the Brett Lee Yorker in 2013 is enough to get me lamenting that 2012 is indeed the end of an era, an era of cricket legends, especially in Indian cricket.

As an Indian fan, I started the year on a hope and prayer that the New Year’s Test at Sydney brings back some semblance of teeth to Indian test cricket. As an Indian fan, I end the year on a hope and prayer for the same. As a cricket fan, I end the year with the lament that 2012 has left cricket poorer.