10 forgettable comebacks in sport
Regardless of the genius of an athlete, retirement is a reality that all sportspersons have to contend with. However, the allure of sport and fame are such that many athletes cannot help but succumb to the call of the arena, even after they have bid farewell to the sport. Many an athlete has defied age and time, coming back from retirement, achieving new conquests in his or her second innings. Sport has seen many a fairytale comeback. At the same time, sport has also been witness to comebacks that have been disastrous. Let us take a look at ten such failed and forgettable comebacks in sport.
#1 George Headley (Cricket)
‘The Black Bradman’, George Headley was the lynchpin of the West Indies batting line-up for nearly two decades. Although he played a meagre 22 Tests in a career that was cut short by the supervention of the Second World War, Headley scored 2190 runs with ten hundreds to boot and ending his career with an average of 60.83 against his name, second only to Don Bradman’s at the time of his retirement.
His post-war career, however, was wracked by injury and Headley failed to touch the heights that had led to comparisons with Bradman. Although he went on to become West Indies’s first black Captain in 1948, in a Test played against England at Barbados, his prowess as a batsman was clearly on the wane.
And although he continued playing first-class cricket, his Test career seemed over following a tour of the sub-continent, in which his performance had been largely unimpressive.
However, he returned to Test cricket in 1954 when West Indies toured England. In what was his last Test, he scored just 16 and one in the two innings. He subsequently retired from all forms of senior cricket in 1955. He remains the oldest player to have played a Test for West Indies.