Tired but still not retired

After his rousing welcome on his way to the center of ‘The Oval’, the batsman mapped the field, took guard and lifted his head to sight the bowler at the other end of the 22 yard. There, William Eric Hollies was getting ready for his glide to the popping crease. The mundane wrist-spinner was no awe inspiring, neither on verge of any record equaling scalps nor flaunting any impressive bowling stats. However he himself was oblivious that the following ‘roll of his arm over the shoulder’ would catapult him into cricketing history. For he was to castle the person who was on verge to etch his name in cricketing ‘hall of fame’.  

That batsman being ‘The Don’. Sir Donald George Bradman was playing his last innings, with just four runs needed for him to catapult him in ‘100 runs average’ club. Thus he was almost destined to be the first and thus far the only one to average above 100 with significant number of tests under his belt. As destiny would have, it wasn’t to be.  Bradman pushed forward to the second ball that he faced, was deceived by a googly, and bowled between bat and pad for a duck. An England batting collapse resulted in an innings defeat, denying Bradman the opportunity to bat again and so his career average finished at 99.94.

That elusive 3-figure mark or not, Bradman is acknowledged to be the greatest batsman to walk the earth. For his charisma would have heightened no more, had he dispensed the piece of leather to the fence in his last innings. In fact I believe that ‘ghost of 99’ has just added to his laurel. He could have extended his career by another series if he wanted to and thus achieved the coveted mark, but would he be respected as much then? My answer is a big ‘No’. Sometimes calling it a day on a high is much more remembered than dragging your feet to get past some psychological mark. 

The genius of a person as per yours truly is certainly what that individual has achieved over his career span and not what milestone he has stopped at. At times, one can achieve much more and hog more limelight by ‘intentionally’ stopping short of something. Remember Mark Taylor? He made headlines in 1998 when he declared while on 334 against Pakistan so that he wouldn’t usurp the great Don Bradman, thus paving his way in history. I doubt there would be even a handful who remembers Matthew Hayden’s record 380 against Zimbabwe over Taylor’s act of ‘respect’. Mark Taylor definitely could have rode past the Don’s score to become the highest individual scorer for Australia, but his legacy would have lasted only until some other mortal surpassed him.

Pardon me for sacrilege, but unfortunately we Indians have failed to hang our shoes at the right time irrespective of field of work. Be that grumpy octogenarian politician still wanting to be the prime-minister, those wannabes actor sons desperately hunting for that one box-office hit or that ‘godly’ cricketer still hunting for the elusive century of centuries, all of them have stretched their luck a bit too far. In the process all they have achieved is to just take some sheen off their illustrious career.

One might feel motivated to go on and on, but then you are no ‘lifeless’ Duracell bunny and life isn’t a 100m dash. It isn’t where you zip off at the sound of the gunshot just to halt on feeling the satin ribbon across your chest. In fact it is like a relay race which boils down to swiftly and smoothly passing on the baton to your compatriot, who would thus carry your legacy forward. You may have been a ‘torch-bearer’ of the team for long, a father figure to many, but when a child looks up to his father ‘his idol’, he expects him to emulate him one day. And though one has been at the forefront spearheading his folks still believing he has the zest left in him to lead, it is for him to sidestep and let the urderling step into his shoes at the most opportune time. With all the achievements in ones kitty there comes along most important responsibility to make way for the generation next.