Steven Finn: The man who could have been a legend
In a career spanning over seven years in international cricket and 18 in domestic cricket, Steven Finn managed to earn the tag of someone who could have been a legend.
Bursting into the scene for England in Test cricket in the early 2010s, a lot was expected from the 6-foot-7 seamer. He had raw pace, the ability to hit the deck hard, as well as to get the ball to move in both directions.
However, injuries, as are often the case with fast bowlers, played their part in reducing his lifespan on the international circuit. However, he continued to ply his trade in county cricket in England.
Middlesex, with whom he made his first-class debut in 2005 at the tender age of 16 (in turn becoming the youngest debutant in the county's history) employed him till 2021, after which he moved south to Sussex for a solitary season in 2022-23.
Earlier this week, Finn called time on his career citing that he could no longer go on forcing his body to take on unmanageable workloads.
In a statement, he said:
“Today I am retiring from all forms of cricket with immediate effect. I have been fighting a battle with my body for the last 12 months and have admitted defeat to it.”
It was a knee injury that Finn suffered from earlier this year that broke the proverbial camel's back. This injury kept him out of the game in its entirety in 2023, and must have affected him tremendously at an emotional level.
Having picked up 125 wickets in 36 Tests for England, Finn will go out with his head held high despite not having fulfilled the early potential that he showed.
Finn also played in 69 ODIs and 21 T20Is for England, but it was really his Test career that established him as a household name in the country. He played alongside the likes of James Anderson and Stuart Broad.
Finn's ability to extract bounce from almost any surface (except perhaps the ones in dusty Bangladesh, where he suffered tremendously) held him in good stead throughout his career.
Steven Finn was responsible for the creation of a new no-ball law
Another distinction that can be given to Finn is the creation of the law that says that a no-ball shall be called whenever a bowler dislodges the stumps during his/ her delivery strides. He came into the limelight owing to this debate after South Africa's captain Graeme Smith received a reprieve at Headingley in 2012, due to Finn unknowingly hitting the stumps with his knee.
His career, however, ploughed a bit after the 2013-14 Ashes in Australia, when he was sent back home by England, being deemed 'not selectable.' Hard-working that he was, Finn managed to get his rhythm back by working with Middlesex's bowling coach Richard Johnson, and the results were there for all to see.
The 2015 Ashes in England saw him gain considerable success, and the six wickets he bagged at Edgbaston will go down as one of the finest spells of seam bowling in an Ashes series. Finn, however, would have felt that he could have contributed much more.
Injuries were always around the corner with Finn and seemed to weigh him down more often than not. England suffered in his absence but the likes of Chris Tremlett, Liam Plunkett, Ryan Sidebottom and Tim Bresnan managed to lessen the pain. However, there was hardly anyone like Finn, who could have bowled his heart out given any situation and condition.
Injuries are always a fast bowler's worst enemy, but to Finn, they seemed to be recurring non-stop. In the end, he felt that his body was much too worse for the wear and that it was not in his health's best interests to keep at it.
Finn knows his body better than anyone else, and if he has decided to call it quits, he must have given it a lot of thought. The least we can do at this moment is thank him for the moments he delivered whenever he had the bright red cherry in hand in an England or Middlesex shirt.