The CLOSING CHAPTER

          Life of a player starts differently. His interests are different, hobbies are unusual, dedication is a legend, mentor is a sporting super-hero and above all LOVE is the SPORT. Take a glance around the world and you sight will return back unchanged as you won’t find any of these things different among all the sports legends. However, every legend had to pass through his own hardships, own trauma, face his own issues and make some of the hardest sacrifices.

          “I just wanted to play cricket. My (school/college) team was short of wicket-keeper and because I wanted to play cricket I got myself registered as a wicket-keeper for the first time. That’s how I started it. ”

          These words belong to KUMAR SANGAKKARA, the living LEGEND told these during an interview to a TV channel. For young SANAGAKKARA, the only thing that mattered him his life was the sport he loved more than anything i.e. CRICKET.

          Talk about ABDUR RAZZAQ, elders remember him as one of the rarest persons striving in the hottest afternoons in the dazzling grounds of Lahore just to be capped internationally and step onto the biggest stage of cricket.

          Passion forced these great players and their hard work drove them all along to the grand stage and they didn’t disappoint. New chapters of their live were opened. New records were made and history was being written but as it goes, all good things have to come to an end and its best if they do at the right time before turning into ones you tend to hate.

           In the same fashion, their career had to come to an end, but was ending the story so easy. Is the closing chapter so easy as simply writing “THE END”. Such an end about which the writer had never thought of while starting the story, such an end which might be the worst thing he ever imagined, such an end which would make lion-hearts to burst into tears. The writer doesn’t even know will he be the one to put the final stop with his will or it would be the TIMES that decide.

Cricket has been a glamorous world but it doesn’t take long to for the world to change into a scary one. Legends of cricket have only been such persons who have been the bravest, the most skillful and specially the greatest performers when they have been asked to in the hour of need. The world has always been mad for them and had never wanted them to back-off from the mightiest of the stages. Sadly as it goes “Every rise has a fall”. All of a sudden one might have to step back from what it meant their life for them. RETIRING, leaving cricket willingly or unwillingly, it is as sure as death and no one can do anything.

          “Well begun is half done” and “All is well that ends well”, two of the most contradictory yet complimentary statements and it takes a lot of hard-work, covering of hard yards and fortune as well to achieve both and not even a lot of great players have done so successfully.

           Fortune dragged Imran Khan’s retirement from 1987 to 1992 and what an end did he put to his career while leading the underdogs of that era to the top of the ladder where as Michael Clarke’s dedication to country, his team and the 16^th man, as Clarke mentioned himself, Phil Hughes enforced him to end up on the peak of the mountain.

          Still some great players like the Kings of SWING i.e. WAQAR and WASIM were forced to step back due to the circumstances. The 400* runs scorer, Brian Charles Lara, nor the CENTURION of the centuries, Sachin R. Tendulkar, couldn’t even say Good Bye to the world on a high.

Yet some surprise and sudden retirements were thrown from players like Younis Khan, Graeme Swann, Mitchell Johnson etc. decided to leave the game when none of their fans or beloved ones were expecting them to take such a decision.

          However the circle continues. New players combine together to open their books of careers while the elders continue to plan their closing chapters. On the latest grounds, Shane Watson, one of the greatest all-rounders, has announced to retire from the world cricket right after the World T20 currently going in India. Shane has been an integral part of every team he has played in. Call it Australia, Rajasthan Royals, Islamabad United or the defending BBL Champions Sydney Thunde; he has been always making considerable contributions with the bat & bowl. We hope that he ends up his career on a high as did his former ODI and TEST skipper.

          In between, the Pakistani Superstar is also struggling emotionally and mentally to step back from the sport which has made him BOOM BOOM AFRIDI from mere Shahid Khan Afridi. The youngster, as his fans call him, has not only contributed to the Pakistan Cricket but the International Cricket as well by doing what the world saw as impossible. Nobody knows when or even if the world is going to see another character like him. His retirement still remains an unhandled issue but whenever he makes the call, he would have a lot to be proud of whenever he looks back into his past.

          We welcome the new replacements into the Cricket World but we’re surely going to miss them. We wish the retired ones best of luck for whatever they opt for the future but hope that their struggle for the improvement of the CRICKET goes on endlessly.