Cricket is game of ups and downs. It is famously knows as a great leveller. One match may make you a hero but another poor spell in the next game will lead to a whole lot of criticism of various social media sites. Now it totally upon players as to how they perceive the criticism, some of them brave the heat and come out stronger in the next game while others succumb to the criticism and quit their boots at their prime. After seeing the retirements of Vinay Kumar and Yusuf Pathan over the past week, lets discuss six such potential players who hung up their boots at a very early age.
The first player in the list is of Brendon McCullum. He is one of the greatest players and leaders New Zealand has ever produced. The explosive batsman retired from all forms of international cricket in 2016, just one year after taking his country to the final of the 2015 World Cup. In cricket’s biggest tournament, McCullum was at his imperious best, including a stunning 77 off 25 against England. However, he announced that he would be retiring at the end of the summer, much to the shock of cricket fans across the globe but continued playing T20 tournaments like BBL and even has had a stint as the head coach of the IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders.
The second name in the list is of Craig Kieswetter. Known for his aggressive batting and wicket keeping
Known for being an aggressive batsman and an efficient wicketkeeper, Kieswetter retired at the age of 28 after getting seriously injured in the eye during a T20 tournament. Following his strong performances, he made his international debut in 2010. Still suffering vision problems, Kieswetter’s career ended tragically. He decided to call it a day in 2015. And now, he definitely deserves his mention among the best cricketers who retired too early and was clearly one of England’s brightest stars.
The third name in the list is of Vijay Bharadwaj. He was an excellent right-hand batsman who scored 5553 runs and an amazing right-arm off-break bowler, snatching 59 wickets in 96 matches. In the 90s he was chiefly responsible for Karnataka triple victory in the Ranji Trophy. Bharadwaj had a shining career ahead of him which was horribly cut short by a laser eye operation that went terribly wrong. Instead of seeing better his eyes found it difficult to focus on things and that was it for him in the world of cricket as he had to hang up his boots at an early age in 2006.
The fourth name in the list is of Nari Contractor. Nari was a left-handed opening batsman who set fire in his debut innings after scoring hundreds of run (becoming the second man to do so, following Arthur Morris). The omen of injuries had followed Contractor from the beginning, starting from when he was called to replace the captain of the Gujarat team to when he broke two ribs at Lord’s. In 1961-62 when he was captaining the Indians side, he took a rigid blow behind his skull and it proved to be near fatal for him as he was immediately hospitalised and spent his says in coma just to wake up 6 days later to see a dissapointing demise of his cricketing tenure.
The fifth name in the list is of Saba Karim. He was one of the legendary early starters of the game having played his first Ranji match at a tender age of 15. Besides being a right-hand cricketer, he was also a wicket-keeper. In the 1990-91 Ranji Trophy, Karim played the best cricket of his life, scoring 234 for Bihar. In 2000’s he had a brutal she injury which left his cricketing career in shatters and he had to hand up his boots immediately as playing the sport any more was next to impossible with such a life threatening injury.
The last but not the least is the former player Hansie Cronje. He was a player of utmost class and the way in which his career ended was one of the saddest moments in cricketing history. He was alleged to have a role in the spot fixing scandal and even after getting a lot of backing up by his teammates he could not enter the cricketing circuit again and decided to hang up his boots at a very early age when he actually was in his prime. Two years later he died in a plane crash which was rumoured to be a pre planned one but amidst all this drama one cannot forget how talented a player he was who’s career was cut short at an early age owing to some unfortunate events.
The last one on the list is India’s former head coach Ravi Shashtri. Ravi Shastri had to take early retirement because of consistent injury woes at the mere age of 31. He was one of great allrounders to play for India who always liked challenges.
