5 modern day cricket legends who prematurely resigned from captaincy
In the modern day cricket era, we have been lucky to witness some very young and immensely talented cricketers who shone throughout their careers and entertained the fraternity in their own unique ways.Some of them came through the ranks of disciplined, textbook cricket and served their nations with their solid and secure presence on the field, while others took the game to another level by their sheer aggressive approach and audacity to play the game like no one else had played before.Expectedly, after the success they achieved, quite a few of these cricketers were eventually given the command of leading their national teams, which to some came naturally, while others with dogged determination worked harder, at times out of their makeup, to match the expectations of millions of fans.Quite a lot of them made it till the end of the journey, enjoying success and failures on the way and eventually passing the torch to the next generation. Some however, due to various complexities of the game and what it does to them, relieved themselves from the leadership role and in some cases, from the game itself right when we thought that they will be in the ring for a few more rounds.Let’s have a brief look at 5 of such modern era Test cricket Legends, who either resigned from captaincy and/or left the game just when we thought that they still have a few years left in them.
#1 Michael Clarke
and off the field
Australian Test captain Michael Clarke’s retirement announcement is still very fresh in our memories and making rounds in the media all around the world. When Australia landed in England, no one would have given it a thought. The Australian captain and his team were as bullish as they always have been. In fact, it was England who started as the underdogs this Ashes series (2015).
Less than a month later, England regained the Ashes with a thumping win over their arch rivals in the 4th Test – winning by an innings and 78 runs at Trent Bridge.
Certain talks about Clarke’s career coming to an end had been doing the rounds since the 3rd Test match of the series. He, however, came out hitting back at the critics and media, post Australia’s defeat in the 3rd Test match, raring to go and declaring that he has so much cricket still left in him. Until now, he is averaging only 16 from 8 innings this Ashes series.
His overall captaincy record currently stands at 23 wins and 16 losses from 46 Test matches and he will be leading the Australian team for one last time during the last Ashes Test match.
He is just 34 and many would argue that he had another 2 years at least left in him. The classy Australian right-hander played 114 Tests, scoring 8, 628 runs at an average of 49.30. He scored 28 hundreds and 27 fifties. His record validates his undeniable talent.
Australia’s fourth successive Ashes loss away from home, which was their worst sequence of results in England since 1896, in addition to his diminishing batting form (since March 2014, the captain's last 18 innings have produced 388 runs.) might have played a crucial role in the retirement decision.
He will be remembered as a great Australian batsman and Australia’s 5-0 thrashing of England in the 2013 Ashes along with 2015 cricket World Cup triumph will be noted as the highest points of his career as a Captain.