Cricketers especially in India live a decorated life. The glitz and glamour is aspirational. But cricketers much like other sportsmen go through trials and tribulations. They battle many internal hardships in their career. Not all of them manage to overcome the challenges. There have been a few cricketing legends who gave up on their career owing to heartbreaking reasons. lets look at 5 Cricketers Who Had A Sad Ending To Their Career.
5 Cricketers Who Had A Sad Ending To Their Career
#5 VVS Laxman
VVS Laxman was popularly known as ‘Very Very Special Laxman’. He has won many games for India singlehandedly. Laxman’s 281 against Australia at Kolkata in 2001 is rated as the best Test innings of all time. He was famous for his last innings heroics and his duels against Australia. Laxman played a starring role in India’s rise in the Test rankings. His innings in Durban (2010), Galle (2010), and Mohali (2010) are iconic knocks. But Laxman had one bad series against Australia in 2011-12. He scored 2 half-centuries in 8 games. The media and a certain section of fans started questioning his place in the side. Laxman took the criticism to his heart and announced his retirement suddenly out of nowhere. It was sad to see a servant of Indian cricket retire without playing a farewell game.
#4 Marcus Trescothick
Marcus Trescothick was the flag bearer of aggressive batsmanship. He scored runs across countries. Trescothick was one of the rare English batsmen who dominated spin. He played a crucial role in handling England the advantage in the 2005 Ashes series with his quick-fire momentum driving starts. It is post-2015 that England have adopted an all-out attacking strategy but Trescothick was doing this 10 years before the revolution started. Trescothick was the first popular cricketer to openly admit to suffering from depression. He quit top-level cricket in 2006 and since then announced his retirement from international cricket.
#3 Mohammad Kaif
Mohammad Kaif led India to the U-19 World Cup win in 2000. He soon found his way to the national team. Kaif became a national hero when he orchestrated India’s win in the Natwest series finals in 2002. He was touted to be a potential India captain. But Kaif was dropped from the team before the 2007 ODI World Cup. Kaif could not make a comeback and his last game in India colours was in 2006.
#2 Mark Boucher
Mark Boucher holds the record for the most number of dismissals in international cricket. His 999 dismissals is an iconic number in cricket. Boucher played a thankless role in South Africa’s dominance in world cricket. But his cricketing career was tragically cut short owing to a life-threatening eye injury. Boucher just needed 1 dismissal to complete a thousand dismissals but he retired on having successfully made 999 dismissals.
#1 Rahul Dravid
Rahul Dravid is arguably India’s finest Test batsman. He is one of the selected few cricketers who have scored over 10,000 runs in both Tests and ODI’s. Dravid was the ultimate team man. He changed his game to adapt to the team’s needs. Dravid donned the wicket-keeping gloves for the team’s balance. He gave up captaincy when he felt someone else could give the team a better direction. Dravid agreed to play T20 because the team didn’t have enough players to fill up the XI. He was the only batsman who scored 3 centuries in the 2011 tour of England. Yet post a collective disastrous tour of Australia, Dravid was picked upon for his failure. Dravid calmly announced his retirement without wanting any fanfare surrounding his last game. He didn’t get a farewell game to bid goodbye to the game he so dearly served.
