Age is a very
important factor in a man’s life and
even more in a sports person’s career. In
term of a cricketer it is like gold dust. The Moment a cricketer touches
32-33,buzz of his retirement grows a loud and fight for survival starts with
every innings after 35. A single failure means that talks for your farewell
will grow much louder and the pressure insurmountable. This why most of them
give up the game by 35. But there are
few of them who love to go against the tide . Today we have selected some of
the cricketers who defied age, who bloomed late but when they arrived they made
the world make sit and take notice of them.
1. Misbah –Ul –Haq:
A player like Misbah comes in a generation. He has helped his country become no.1 in game’s most purest form, uplifted them from
ashes and hecmony of the spot fixing saga of 2010 which muddled their whole
cricket. He had made them no.1 but more importantly he made them learn to play
for each
other rather than against each other and result the team earned respect
for fair game all over the world . Never since great Imran Khan had a Pakistani
cricket captain received such respect
and this includes greats like Wasim Akram
and Waqar Younis .However his
contribution can only be understood when we go beyond cricket .He put life
back in the most popular sport of his country,
A sport which is a reason to smile amid all the rubbles and pains of
hardship of life for his countrymen . He is an inspiration for the late bloomers
adopted cricket at 20 , played his first game at 24 and first international
game at 26 but it was only in 2007 at the 33 he made a remarkable comeback to
International cricket and became a permanent fixture in team. At 36 he became
captain probably because his country had no other option but 6 years later, at
42 , he is still active and have scaled some of the greatest heights which many
other starting at 19 or 20 haven’t been able to achieve . This when the man was
termed as the most boring cricketer of his generation. His success is example
for those who give up on their dreams only because of age. All they need is to
wake up their inner Misbah.
2.Rangana Herath : Herath’s story
is no less thrilling than “Maggie” in Million
Dollar Baby . Despite having oozing amount of talent Herath couldn’t
touched the destinations he aimed for . A decade of hope and failure was all
his story was made up. When he touched 30 experts also inked his name among
some of the major failures of all time but Herath never gave up , he packed his
bags and went to England to play in off season to show selectors he was still
the best after Murli. On a chilly English morning of June 2009 , Herath’s phone rang it was Kumar
Sangakkara , the Srilankan captain who requested Herath to come back to help
his nation as Murli was injured. Herath knew this was the last opportunity he
would get, he packed his bags and within 24 hours he was sitting in Colombo for
what turned out to be the greatest comebacks
of all time at the age of 31 years and 3 months.
After Vass and Murli’s retirement Herath filled the void and took the
whole attack on his shoulders. 7 years later at 38 Herath took his 300th Wicket fittingly in
England and within
2 months he
took his first
hat trick leading
a remarkable
whitewash against Australians by galloping 28 wickets in the series . Today he
has 351 wickets, 75 test to his name big of all a man of the match in WC
seminal and a T-20 WC to his name. Today he says he wouldn’t have achieved all
this had he given up on his aim to play for Srilanka but he never thought he
couldn’t make a comeback.
3.Michel Hussey:
A wonderful talent born in wrong era who couldn’t get chance
due to the height at which Australian cricket was at that time ( 1995-2008).
When it looked that his name might end up along side some of the other
fascinating cricketers of his generation like Brad Hodge, Stuart Law, Michel Devenuto who end of getting
either very little or no opportunities, Australia lost the Ashes in English
Summer of 2005 after 16 years of Dominance . It
marked the beginning of end of careers of some of the finest cricketers
like Damien Martyn ,Jason Gillespie and Michel Kaprowicz. It also led a test call for Michel Hussey. At 30 years and 4 Months he wore the
most cherished of his possessions, the baggy green. For next 7 years till his
retirement, Hussey became the backbone of Australian team along with Ricky
Ponting and Michel Clarke .He was the
most respected of the Australian cricketers of his time and arguably the best
with stomach to fight. His innings against Pakistan at Sydney in 2009-10 or his
hundred at Oval in 2009 in losing cause exemplified his character for which he
was nicknamed Mr. Cricket. He
retired in 2013 at 37 years of age, not because the people asked but he wanted
to leave the game at the peak of his career.
He finished
with 6000 and 5000 plus runs in Test and Odis and became 12th Highest scorer in both
the forms for Australia but more importantly he led Australia when golden
generation players were retiring.
4.Saeed Ajmal : It took 13 years for Saeed Ajmal to complete his
journey from first class cricket to test cricket . In 2009 when he played his
first Test match at Galle against
Srilanka he was three short of turning 32. Yet
in next 5 years till 2014, by the time he was suspended for illegal
action he had become one of the best bowlers in world cricket and one of the
finest spinners to be ever produced by Pakistan . During this period in absence
of Aamir and Aasif he carried the burden of Pakistan’s bowling, and for long time he was no.1 . The way he decimated
the then no.1 ranked English team in 2012 leading 3-0 wash out was remarkable.
An year before he was leading wicket taker with 50 wickets in just 8 tests.
Against England what was touted as battle of the best spinners Swann vs Ajmal.
Ajmal outshoned Swann, while Swann took 13 wickets, Ajmal with 24 wickets was
all over England . He Took 78
Wickets in 2012 and 2013 and was top of the game in Oneday Internationals as well
where he took 184 wickets and is among top Pakistani wicket takers. In 2014 he was banned from ICC due to
suspect action, 9 months later he made an unsuccessful comeback. Today at 39 his career might seem to be
over but he is no doubt one of the best spinners produced by Pakistan .
Apart from these age defying superheroes there are some other notable
cricketers like Robin Singh , Zulfiqar Babar, Brad Hogg, Ryan Harris ,
GreameSwann and Chris Rogers who were late bloomers but when they started their
international career they were hard to stop
, they were the pillar of success for their team proving every time on that 22
yard cricket strip that age is just a number all one needs is hunger to succeed
and dedication for his dreams.
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