The expendables of international cricket
Pravin Tambe must be cursing his bad luck. Four days after a wonderful Champions League tourney and two days after his 42nd birthday, the entire nation swivelled its spotlights around to another 40 year old – this time for his retirement. Those who were smothering Tambe with praise a few days back now had nothing but tears of sorrow at the “end of Indian cricket as a religion”.
But he should thank his good luck as well. Had Brad Hogg not decided to play for Perth Scorchers, he might not have been in the starting XI as well. In fact, had Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila not decided to indulge in a spot of spot-fixing, he might not have been in the squad as well. Chandila, after all, had taken a hat-trick in his first season with the Rajasthan Royals while Chavan, along with Iqbal Abdulla, had been marked as the spinning spearheads of Mumbai’s bowling attack.
But now (or at least before Tendulkar’s retirement), everyone is talking about Pravin Tambe. If he was 22, they would have named him the saviour of Indian spin bowling; if he was 32, they would have christened his efforts as a mid-life resurgence; at 42 they hail it as nothing less than a miracle – a sign from the heavens above. So much so that a certain school of followers believe that Tambe should be considered a serious candidate for the India blue.
In his favour, there have been men who have played cricket when many considered their time was up. To be honest, most of them existed at a time when the game was clearly demarcated for amateurs and professionals and when there was not a lot of money riding on the results. But even if we were to restrict ourselves to a time period since the advent of ODIs and take into account only Test playing nations we would be pleasantly surprised to see the results of 42 year olds playing international cricket. Co-incidentally quite a few of them are also spinners by profession.
John Traicos – In 1970, the Egypt-born off-spinner John Traicos made his debut for South Africa against Australia in what would turn out to be their last Test series for quite some time. Like his contemporaries, Traicos was expected to play county cricket in England or be a part of the South African teams which played the rebel teams over the next two decades or both. Instead he took the path less beaten to Rhodesia and plied his trait for Mashonaland over the years.
His strategy seemed successful when 13 years later, at the age of 36, Traicos made a successful ODI debut against Australia in the 1983 World Cup. Thereafter he appeared in the 1987 World Cup in the subcontinent which many expected would be his swansong at 40.
It, therefore, took many by surprise when he was a part of Zimbabwe’s third World Cup campaign at a young old age of 45. Most of the cricketing world had taken this as his final hurrah.
Six months later, Traicos played his fourth Test match and first for Zimbabwe against India taking 5 for 86. Even at 45, he was the best spinner in the country and among the finest in the world. And those who have seen him field say that his reflexes at gully would match that of a 20 year old.
Traicos ended his career on the tour of India the next year. He would have been on the plane to Pakistan for the next tour but for his business commitments which, at that time, seemed far more profitable than playing for Zimbabwe.