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One of the hottest topics since the end of the World Cup has been about whether MS Dhoni should retire from Cricket or not. Dhoni has had an amazing career. He is the most successful Indian Captain winning the ODI World Cup in 2011 - by hitting a six to take them over the line, the T20 World Cup with a young team in 2007 and also the ICC Champions trophy in 2013. In addition, he also took India to the top of the Test Rankings for the very first time in 2009. He stepped down from ODI captaincy in 2016 and retired from Test Cricket at the end of 2014 while still being the captain. He handed over the reins to Virat Kohli who has led India admirably since.

Holding the reputation of being one of the best finishers in ODI Cricket, Dhoni’s batting prowess throughout his career has been a key reason for his popularity. In addition he is an excellent wicketkeeper, especially to spinners. From 2007 to 2015 his ODI batting was consistently exceptional with an average of above 45 throughout this period. After India’s loss in the Semi finals of the 2015 World Cup, one of the questions that kept coming up was whether Dhoni would be able to last until the 2019 World Cup. To fan these flames, Dhoni’s form slumped from 2015 until end of 2016 and then again from Sept 2017 to Dec 2018. In this period he was still winning matches but it was quite clear that his speed of scoring had reduced and he was taking matches more deeper than otherwise. He faced a lot of criticism during this period mainly due to the fact that the bar that he had set was so high. For instance, his batting average was still 41 at a strike rate of 82 and his Chasing Wins average was also 58.

However, he turned around things from Jan 2019 and has had an average of 60 this year. In the World Cup, he had a few questionable innings that drew criticism. Especially his innings against England where it wasn’t clear why he couldn’t force the pace earlier. On the flip side, Dhoni kept vigil in the Semi finals against New Zealand by providing the platform for Jadeja’s innings and was unfortunate to get run out. There is no question that Dhoni’s career has been exceptional. But choosing when to retire can be one of the toughest decisions a sportsperson has to make.

Let us take a journey through the past 30 years of great cricketers and look at how players have handled retirement. In order to make it simpler I have categorized it into 5 different categories. Will he ever retire, Overstayed, Well Timed, Retired on Top, ‘Retired already ?’.

Will he ever retire ?

There have been a few players who were able to stay on in the team for a very long time without retiring even after their performance has dropped. This was mainly possible because of the outsized reputation they had built up throughout their career. One of the classic cases of this was Ian Botham. He had a spectacular career as an all rounder and was certainly one of the greatest all rounders ever. He took a total of 383 wickets in his Test Match career. He retired in 1992 after a test series vs Pakistan at home. However, he only took a total of 17 wickets in his last 13 matches since 1986 and averaged just 30 with the bat too. He long overstayed and was definitely not worthy of being in the side during the final stages of his career.

Another example is the great Javed Miandad. He had a reputation of never letting go whether it is a match or at the end, his career. Miandad was Pakistan’s most successful batsman on par with Inzamam Ul Haq. After the 1992 World Cup, he took over as captain but he didn’t play for long. His last test match was in 1993. Between 1990 and 1993, his test average was just 34 vs a career average of 52. However, he was notorious for making a comeback in the 1996 World Cup after not having played any international cricket for more than 2 years. He came back mainly to play for a 6th consecutive World Cup. Miandad did not play well in the World Cup and bowed out after losing the 1996 QF against India. This is another example of a great player who was overstayed their welcome and made people wonder - “Will he ever really retire”.

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Overstayed

Kapil Dev is the best all rounder India has ever had. He was the one who brought true fast bowling to India. Making his debut in 1977 he went on to become one of the 4 great all rounders of that era. By the time he was nearing the end of his career in the mid 90’s his bowling prowess had considerably weakened. His last 12 test matches brought only 24 wickets and I remember as a kid I was waiting for Kapil to achieve the milestone of going past Richard Hadlee’s then record of 431 wickets. He retired soon after achieving the record but for more than a year and a half he was in the team mainly so that he can make that milestone.

Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement announcement and the ensuing final series was a celebration of his stellar career of 24 years. The Indian board made sure that they bring West Indies for a 3 test home series which ended at Tendulkar’s home town of Mumbai and what was Sachin’s 200th test match. The reception that he received from everyone around the world and his speech after his last test match were incredible to experience. Talks about Sachin’s retirement had started all the way back in 2006 when he had injuries, slump in form and the team had issues with Greg Chappell as well. In fact Sachin himself attested to this in his auto-biography. However he came through all that roaring back like a lion by having a spectacular run of form between 2008 and 2011. In the successful 2011 World Cup, he was India’s highest run getting with 482 runs with 2 centuries. But then his form dropped significantly after that. In his last 23 test matches he did not score a single century. For someone who has scored 51 test centuries to not score a century for that long puts in perspective how much his form had slid. He was still a good fielder and team player but he was definitely limping through his last 2 years of Test cricket.

On the ODI front, he made a quick decision to step out of the game at the end of 2012 as he realized he was not going to be around until the 2015 World Cup. A great career and perhaps the greatest Indian cricketer ever but without bringing in emotions one has to say he overstayed by at least a year if not two.

Sunil Gavaskar also had a similar run in the mid 80’s and so did Arjuna Ranatunga. One common theme among all these players is that they would have never been dropped from their teams if not for their retirement.

Timed Appropriately

Saurav Ganguly’s career was dotted with many high’s and lows. He made his ODI debut in 1992 but didn’t become a regular until his spectacular debut in England in 1996. He became one of the best ODI batsmen in the world through the 90’s. He became India’s lion hearted captain in 2000 taking the team from troubled times after the match fixing scandal to becoming one of the best teams by 2004/05. However his batting took a hit by 2004. He gave up his opening slot in ODI’s to Sehwag and in tests he was played at Number 5 and sometimes even lower depending on the situation. In 2006 he was both dropped as captain and from the team after his spat with Greg Chappell.

With his back up against the wall, he dig deep, played Ranji Trophy cricket and forced his way back into the team. In ODI’s he had a good 2007 but given his fielding deficiencies and with the team positioning itself for the 2011 World Cup he was pushed out along with Rahul Dravid. However, he still had a very good 2007 and 08 in Test Matches. He finally called it quits at the end of 2008 in a 4 test home series against Australia that India won. In his last test match, as a tribute to him Dhoni gave him the honor of captaining the side for the last 15 minutes of the test match. Ganguly timed his retirement very well knowing fully well that the next set of players would have most likely made it tougher for him to keep his place if he had played any longer. Tough but good decision In the end.

Ricky Ponting is Australia’s most successful batsman and captain. Ponting’s batting took from the late 90’s and through the mid 2000’s was definitely the best batsman in the world, especially in test matches. Having been in fine form until 2009, his form slumped in 2010 and 2011. He gave up the captaincy to Michael Clarke in 2011 after holding it for a long time. He took a team of World Beaters from Steve Waugh, continued the rise but then had a slew of retirements (Hayden, Langer, Martyn, Gilchrist, McGrath, Warne, Gillespie) which meant that he had to transition to a new team. This took a huge toll on him and his batting suffered as a result. He Brought his form back up in 2012 but then he could see that he had to make a move on. He timed it appropriately and left the game for good.

Another big name who timed it well was Sir Vivian Richards. The last 3 years of his career were ordinary with the bat and his form was dipping considerably. He was captaining an extremely successful West Indies team and in spite having the opportunity to stay on until the 1992 World Cup he decided to hang up his boots after the 1991 England series away. A good example of a cricketer who timed his exit well.

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Retired on top

Retiring on top is not something players can plan for. It is a case of all the stars lining up perfectly for someone to achieve this. One of the best examples of such a retirement is Imran Khan’s. The current Pakistani PM and former captain led his team to victory in the 1992 World Cup in Australia and announced that he is exiting the game. He was 40 years old when that happened. Even though he had retired previously in 1987 he was brought back at the request of the President of Pakistan. There could not have been a better exit from the game than to do it when you have the World Cup in your hand. Lucky !

Muttaih Muralitharan was 8 wickets away from getting to a magical 800 wickets in Test Cricket going into his last test match. He had already announced that he was going to retire and also was the highest ever wicket taker in Test history. His form never dipped much even though he had a less than optimal 2009. In his last test match, he took 5 wickets against India in the first innings and needed 3 more to make it to 800. It was 6 wickets down for India in the second innings and he had not added to his tally. He took 3 out of the last 4 wickets including the last wicket thus making it to 800 wickets and also ensuring Sri Lanka folded India for a small lead.

Another examples is Steve Waugh who said goodbye against India in 2003-04 by scoring a 80 on the last day helping save the test match, in true Steve Waugh style ensuring the series was a draw. He left the sport in top form as he averaged 80 in 2003 and with an amazing captaincy record.

Retired Already ?

Early retirements are always a shock. Michael Clarke was one of those players. He was the Aussie captain from 2011 onwards and was taking team through a good period after the transition from the previous years. His batting took a little slump in 2013 and 2014 but nothing that could not have been overcome. However he decided to quit the game after an Ashes series loss in England in August 2015. It was a shocking decision to come at the age of 34.

Sir Alastair Cook also retired at the age of just 33. In spite of being so young he played 161 test matches in the span of 12 years and captained England in 59 of those. His form had been consistent throughout and he wasn’t playing in ODI’s or T20 either. So his decision to leave the game was quite a shocker and definitely felt like he had a couple of years left.

It all comes down to perception. How does the viewing public perceive a player’s form and performance is not just based on numbers but also on the method in which that performance was put together. On that front Dhoni’s batting powers have definitely waned and given there are players like Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik waiting to take his position I have no doubt that even if Dhoni retired today, the team is in good shape. Ultimately, a team player like Dhoni should and will want that more than personal glory. After all what else is left to achieve for someone like Dhoni.