“Babu Moshai, Zindagi bari honi chahiye, lambhi nahi”, is one of the most remarkable dialogues that was given in one of the iconic movies of all time, Anand. When translated in English, it roughly comes to yiur life must be grand instead of being long.
Cricket is an extremely demanding sport and even before you realise that you are out there in the field, your career may come to a halt.
There are countless reasons for one’s career to end, considering the fact that we are living in an era or uncertainty and we do not know what happens next.
Yet a few cricketers have lived only for the moment in the field and in the very short career that they have had so far, they have managed to manifest themselves as absolute paragons of the sport.
In this story, we will take a look at five cricketers who had a very short span of a cricketing career but lived life like the kings.
#1 Phil Hughes
The man who will always remain unbeaten on 63, Phil Hughes lost his life after a tragic accident on the ground when he was hit with a nasty bouncer from a young Sean Abott. To add to the tragedy, it was just a week ahead of his 26th birthday. When the mishap unfolded, his career had just started taking flight after a string of impressive performances that the Australian opener has posted. In his short career, he played 26 Test matches that saw him racking up 1535 runs while from 25 ODI’s he managed to snap up 826 runs. He used to boast about such a perfect technique that many fans drew contrast with Australia’s iconic Test opener, Justin Langer.
#2 Irfan Pathan
A career that could have probably echoed for ages, got snuffed out after desperate experimentations on probably one of India’s rare reverse swing bowlers. Indian bowlers whipping out reverse swing was rare spectacle back in the days and yet when he made his debut against Australia, in his very second Test match, he claimed Gilchrist with a ball of the century, that is deemed as paradise for the fast bowlers. He was also the man of the match in India’s 2007 T20 World Cup final where he claimed three important wickets to shatter the spine of Pakistani batting line-up that included the big scalp of Afridi for a golden duck. Alongside his impressive bowling he also played a few remarkable knocks that started making Chappel, India’s coach then, that he can be a batsman. In an attempt to make him battle-ready with the bat, his bowling started getting rusty. In the end of the day a career that shoulf have seen at least 350 international appearances was cut short to 173 caps.
#3 Shaun Tait
Another impressive career that couldn’t live up to its complete potential due to a boatload of injuries was that of Shaun Tait. The man with an unorthodox action kept on peppering the batters with a nasty brand of bodyline deliveries that brought them down to their knees. Sadly, this consistent demand of pace, was the reason that his career came to an end. Instead of focusing on his lines, he focused on generating more and more speed and that left him bruised and tired even before the game came to an end. He managed 95 international wickets from the 59 caps that he had.
#4 Sohail Tanvir
Tanvir was one of the most talented fast bowlers of the Pakistani squad with his unorthodox bowling action and a decent sting with the bat in the tail. Sadly, for him, his career took an abrupt turn for the bad. In his limited appearances for Pakistan, the fast bowler managed to claim 130 international wickets. More than his figures, what was more impressive was the impact that he had on the game. He always went for the players who could take away from Pakistan and was also successful to a certain extent.
#5 Ricardo Powell
Age was probably extremely unkind to him as a career that started taking flight had to snuff out due to his physique capitulating. In the early days of the 21st century and in the latter half of the 20th century, if one thing was a rare sight for the eyes, that was a strike rate close to 100. This big-hitter from the Caribbean islands ended his ODI career with a strike rate of 96 plus. Not always do you come across rare talents like these only to see it get extinguished for the human clock that never stops.
