#stop retiring

[battingonjakku]

Never got round to posting this at the time, and now’s as good a time as any.

The recent WT20 saw Shashikala Siriwardene, one of the GOATS of Sri Lankan cricket, retire after 17 years playing for her national team. She signed off with a match winning 4/16 against Bangladesh. 

A match earlier when Sri Lanka played India she was also gifted this shirt signed from the Indian team with a message of thanks which I thought was also really sweet.

A full article over on Cricinfo 

[battingonjakku]

The legend that is Val, the creator of the Whiff. What a career. Thank you Jenny.

[battingonjakku]

Wow. It’s not unexpected, and it’s probably the right time, but it’s just so hard to imagine an England side without Cook in. 158 tests in a row, try beating that. 

Cook is a throwback in this modern age, as England’s batting line up fills with strokemakers and players who were, like me, probably watching the 2005 Ashes on tv in their summer holidays home from school. That summer, Cook was 20 years old and making a double century against the Aussies in a tour match. Later that winter, he was making his debut, in India, flying halfway around the world to play the next day. Oh, and getting a fifty and century on his debut. He missed the third test in that series, and not another since. 

He might not have the shots that have become so common these days, though I have seen him play a ramp (yes really), but its the mentality he has that’s like gold dust. A fierce stubbornness that has been such a virtue. To play the longest innings, to bat for hours and hours in the heat and the pressure. To go out and open the innings, the toughest time to bat, being the most prized wicket in the team, and still coming out on top and doing it again and again. It’s hard to find others like him.

And then the runs, so many runs. The 2010/11 Ashes stand out, the summer that followed, the tour to India in 2012. Some of England’s most famous wins and their greatest achievements in this era, and Cook was always right at the the heart of it. The king of the daddy hundred, laying the foundations for the other batsmen, and for the bowlers to go on the attack. There’s the numbers too -  (so far) 12254 runs, 32 centuries, an average of 44.88 at the top of the order. Remarkable, and streets ahead of anyone else to have played for England.

It feels like the right time, though it’s a scary new world for England. Cook will play on for Essex, and I reckon he could go on for years. But it’ll be just one last match for England, an emotional five days no doubt. I really hope he can get a century one last time, go out on a high, a grand finale for one of England’s greatest.

[battingonjakku]

The most wickets for a left arm spinner and the last test cricketer of the nineties. 

[battingonjakku]

Here’s to the county stalwarts.

The cult heroes, the one club men, the ones who came from afar who were loved all the same, the international stars who still had more to give, those whose careers were cut short by injury, to those that gave as much as they could.

To those who brought the grit, the passion, the entertainment, the joy.

Here’s to them all.

[battingonjakku]

Whaaaat

[battingonjakku]

[battingonjakku]

Ryan Sidebottom will be retiring at the end of the season. It had to happen soon, but still :((