5 worst timed retirements in cricket

As the rhetoric goes - You can take the dog out of the fight, but you can't take the fight out of the dog.This is my exact feeling on the topic of sporting legends having to retire.The toughest thing for any sports personality is knowing when to bow down from the stage and that too gracefully. And frankly, this is not something inculcated in them.I mean, when you are told throughout your career to never give up, soldier on and give it back to your critics with your on field performances, how can we expect them to just capitulate one day under the duress of media and critics? How can we ask them to pay heed to their wizened bodies when they are inured by such petty issues? So it’s naturally not the strongest suite for a cricketer or any other sportsperson to know when to retire.Time and again we see players fading away rather than accepting their end as a professional cricketer. The reasons are aplenty and multifarious. Be it personal milestones, love for the sport, or just a lookout for that final hurrah that may ultimately sanction them the status they think they deserve. While we all may understand the reason behind players wanting to stick for another match/series/year and may actually relate to the calling on a personal level, no one likes seeing a team suffer due to an individual’s aspirations.Let’s look at occasions when legendary cricketers had to call it time from the gentlemen’s game but not at an opportune time. Here are the five of the worst timed retirements.Do chip in with your contenders as well.

#5 Sanath Jayasuriya

When you think of Jayasuriya, you think of brazen pulls and cuts for sixes and annihilation of bowling team in the first power play. Jayasuriya carved a niche for himself with this atypical batting as an opener while his wily left-arm spin made him a perfect fit in all forms of the game.

He was the part of that new world order squad of the mid ‘90s that helped Sri Lanka efface the minnows tag along with Aravinda Da Silva, Ranatunga and Muralitharan. But like all the legends of the game, saying goodbye was not easy for him.

Having played his last match at the age of 42, it always looked like he was looking to fit in to the squad even playing in the middle order rather than as an opener just to get by. Sadly, this was not the Jayasuriya that crumbled many a sides in the 1996 World Cup but a shadow of him.