Six and Out - Some Serious Cricket

Cricket changing its guard

by SixandOut on December 21st, 2006

Cunning double-meaning-subject-lines* aside, the face of cricket is about to change as a series of high profile players announce their retirement from the game. Firstly, there was Damien Martyn a week or so ago, who didn’t so much announce his retirement as just went away on holiday, but today saw two more. Steve Harmison announced he won’t be playing any more one day cricket in order to prolong his Test career (probably because enormous wides and crap bowling can be hidden more easily at Test level), a tactic which worked well for Shane Warne, who confirmed that he will be retiring from International cricket at the end of the Ashes. I can only imagine that that is subject to that 700th wicket, but given the 40 wickets he has to aim at in the remaining games, it’s more certain than me spending New Years alone. Sob.

However, following Warne a raft of other cricketers are expected to follow suit, of whom most will initially be of the Australian flavour. Many jokes have been made about “Dad’s Army” but it’s a fact that the Australian selectors cannot escape, 50% of the current Australian XI aren’t far from drawing their pensions. Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer, Matt Hayden and Adam Gilchrist are just 4 of the men tipped to go. The Aussies needn’t worry seeing as they seemingly have a never-ending flow of youngsters coming through the ranks, but the extent of “bedding-in” (something Warne can no doubt help with) required will determine whether Australia maintain their grip on the mantle.

But ought we to expect some more in the not too distant future? There are many other aging cricketers around the world who may not be far from the commentary box. Brian Lara, Stephen Fleming and Inzamam-Ul-Haq appear to be the most likely contenders, but Anil Kumble, Shaun Pollock and Murali are all getting on a bit. So as an Englishman, we might be the best prepared to cope with such eventualities. England’s long list of recent injuries, which has forced the blooding of new players, has meant that the current team are all 30 or younger, with the likes of Alastair Cook and Ian Bell, both of whom have shown great potential at the International level, just 21 and 24 respectively.

The coming year could be very interesting indeed in terms of the rankings.

* Did you get them? They were of course in the term “changing the guard” that is, the changing the guard ceremony and the guard being the mark a batsman makes to know where his stumps are. Obvious, really.

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POSTED IN: Cricket