THE ART OF LEAVING

THE ART OF LEAVING

Khaliqur Rahman

Gavaskar retired from Test Cricket after scoring a hundred in the bi-centenary Test, if I remember right, at Lords, as they say, the Mecca of Cricket. He left on a high and it was Bedi who said that to set another example of the way the little master hanged his boots and left his bat, someone would need to wait for good two hundred years and score a century in that Test to only equal the record. Gavaskar, for sure, knew the art of leaving.

Nowadays, it seems, nobody wants to leave! Tell me which country has political leaders as old as ours. Tell me which country has film heroes as old as ours. Look at Rajnikant and Amitabh Bachchan! That way Naseeruddin Shah is good enough and young enough to do those dirty tricks in the Dirty Picture. Ashok Kumar, I’m told, has worked with heroines older than him and also with the ones half his age. Dilip Kumar, too, has had a co-star less than half his age, Saira Bano, his wife in real life.

According to Ravi Shastri, some of our Test match players are still continuing to play even when they are well past their sell-by date. I wonder why Kumble chose to retire. And, don’t you remember, torn between joy and gratitude, respect and honour, Dhoni carried the old shoulders on his young and strong ones over the boundary line. Again, some way to leave!

But what’s happened to the three otherwise greats, Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman? Look at the famously known Master Blaster. He shapes so well until the ball shapes in to hit his pads or his stumps. A hundred and ninety nine International centuries to his credit, it seems, he’s not able to leave the burden behind him when he reaches 70 or 80 or even 90. How many times he has missed the coveted century of centuries. It appears to have become a never-ending snake and ladder game with him.

And, what’s happened to The Wall? In England, he was fantastic. He belied his own age and proved his critics wrong. Now they say there’s a brick missing. He leaves the proverbial gap between the bat and the pad. When he’s in the slips he leaves those sitters, as well.

The scourge of the Australians in the past, Very Very Special Laxman now in Australia is a sad and sordid apology of himself. It seems, out of the Very Very Special Laxman only Lax remains.

I feel very sorry for them. They should have gracefully left even before the English tour. People and their fans would have remembered them not only for their records but for their greatness in and wisdom of leaving with grace. Now perhaps, they’ll remember them for their forced exit sans grace and dignity.

If only the old and stale and the dead weight had left and retired when it was the right time, and I’m afraid, it was a long time ago, the present scenario must have been bubbling with the vigour of youth and quickness of fresh legs.

It would have been better to lose, even in England and now in Australia, with the young but inexperienced than with old and experienced.

And, the Board isn’t above board either. When will those dirty and detestable, rude and roguish faces leave, for cricket to be cricket?

They have been teaching The Art of Living for quite some time. To live and let live, they should start courses in the Art of Leaving!