A cricketer’s legacy is judged after his retirement from the sport. It is highly advised for players to retire on a high because sometimes, cricketers come under criticism for trying to unnecessarily prolong their careers. The fact that they want to do it all for their national teams is understandable, but sometimes, by not retiring, they end up blocking the place of young players, which does more harm than good.
Various legendary cricketers in the past have been accused not retiring at the right moment, and it essentially comes back to haunt them back. A player must always think of the team first, and his own interest after that. By not moving on at the right time, cricketers tend to tarnish their own legacy. With that said, in this article, we will take a look at five players who could have retired earlier, but they simply chose not to.
Here are five legendary cricketers who unnecessarily prolonged their careers:
5) Kapil Dev
The man who led India to their first-ever World Cup triumph in 1983, Kapil Dev is widely regarded by experts as one of the best all-rounders of all time.
The legendary cricketer’s records speak for himself. Having said that, the numbers could have been much better, if only Kapil decided not to unnecessarily prolonged his career. From June 1992, up until his retirement in 1994, the right-handed batsman came in for a lot of criticism.
In that period, he accounted for 16 Test caps and managed just 33 scalps, which was well below Kapil’s own lofty standards. Earlier, the all-rounder had picked up 401 wickets in 115 previous matches. He was accused of being selfish and delaying the debut Javagal Srinath. The now 61-year-old could have retired 2 years earlier, and that way, he could have avoided all the criticism subjected at him.