Players Whose Careers Ended Without Any Fanfare

[Kraken]

- Damien Martyn: Middle of a 5-0 Ashes win, no-one really noticed he was gone tbh. Langer, Warne & McGrath who all retired at the end of the same series got a lot more attention
- Mark Waugh: Dropped, awks. Probably should have been dropped a year sooner.
- Michael Slater: Dropped for behavioural issues, didn't really retire just went away and became a psychopath
- Simon Katich: Dropped after 2010/11 Ashes a bit harshly, was a very good opening bat for a few years
- Brad Haddin: Dropped for Peter Nevill. Probably fair enough that one he was well past it
- Mitchell Johnson: Sent into retirement by slow/low drop in Aussie pitches
- Peter Siddle: Got picked again and again even though he sucked after giving up meat. Finally went away to play T20 cricket

tbh seems to me like more players go out without a lot of fanfare than those that do. Might be quicker to ask the opposite question

would change Katich to harshly dropped instead of a bit, otherwise all true

 

[Fuller Pilch]

- Mitchell Johnson: Sent into retirement by a Luteru Ross Poutoa Lote Taylor masterclass.

agree

 

[Starfighter]

Disagree, the way he went out was embarrassing for someone whose played 100 Tests .

It was noticed though. Hardly faded away.

 

[Molehill]

For England, it's basically every player in the last 20 years or so except Flintoff, Cook and Broad.

 

[Adorable Asshole]

Ian Healy

He was told the selectors were going to pick Gilchrist in the test team. Healy then asked to play his last home season, but was refused. He asked to get one final test at the Gabba but was also refused. He then retired.

Kinda cold from CA.

 

[Yeoman]

Kevin Pietersen..Ended with a 5-0 thumping in Australia, what a ego killer.

Pietersen’s ego was too strong to let something like career mortality even graze it.

 

[Yeoman]

For England, it's basically every player in the last 20 years or so except Flintoff, Cook and Broad.

Very few people in publicly-facing careers get to leave on their own terms when they are still performing well, be they sportsmen, politicians, entertainers or otherwise. The temptation is always to keep going, to satisfy ego and/or to keep the money rolling in.

 

[Qlder]

Rod Marsh

Chappell and Lillee retired during the Pakistan test and both received a guard of honour and heaps of fanfare. Marsh retired after the test finished when he made himself unavailable for WI tour, so got nothing

 

[ankitj]

?

They retired after the Australia tour. They didn't get dropped. IIRC BCCI even asked laxman to stay for a farewell home test at hyderabad but he refused. Sehwag fits what you said. He got dropped and it took a long time after that for him to officially announce retirement.

Didn't know about the offer to Laxman. Still they didn't get the farewell befitting their stature in Indian cricket.

 

[TheJediBrah]

re Swann and Trott, their "retirements"

Kinda cold from CA.

It was proven to be objectively the right decision pretty quickly

 

[Adorable Asshole]

It was proven to be objectively the right decision pretty quickly

Yeah but one test in his home Ground wouldn't have made any difference.

 

[Coronis]

Rod Marsh

Chappell and Lillee retired during the Pakistan test and both received a guard of honour and heaps of fanfare. Marsh retired after the test finished when he made himself unavailable for WI tour, so got nothing

Yeah that was a sad one I always thought.

 

[AndrewB]

Mike Atherton

According to the Guardian report: "Atherton walked off the field wearily, thin-lipped until he reached the boundary where, as the ground stood to him and the Australians gathered to offer their appreciation of a sterling opponent, he waved his bat in embarrassed fashion and was gone", so a minor fanfare at least.

Ian Botham's Test career had about as unimpressive a finish as you can have: he scored 2 and 6, took 0-9 in the first innings, and when Pakistan were struggling in their 2nd innings chase (they slid to 95-8, but eventually won by 2 wickets), he was off the field injured.

 

[Chubb]

Glamorgan legend and two cap England opener Steve James' last first class match was a rain sodden draw at Derby. Injuries prevented him from a last hurrah in Wales. Doesn't get more depressing than that.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Danny Morrison

Batted heroically for hours to put on 106 unbroken for the last wicket with Nathan Astle (scored a gutsy 14* off 133 balls and helped Astle get a century) to save a test against England and then was dropped for the test the following week and never played for NZ again.

That test was also Lee Germon's last with Stephen Fleming taking over as captain and Adam Parore taking the wicketkeeping gloves.

 

[NotMcKenzie]

Yeah but one test in his home Ground wouldn't have made any difference.

That's the thing though. Does a player deserve that one Test to have a nice farewell on their home ground, and keep a better player out by doing so?

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

There should be a team of retired guys that just goes around playing one-off Tests to farewell other players.

 

[Burgey]

TOTAB

 

[Fuller Pilch]

TOTAB

I know it is a shame he lost his last IPL match for RCB, but at least he finished his test career with a 492 run win over Australia.

 

[jcas0167]

Jeff Thompson?

Continuing with Queensland as captain, Thomson was chosen for the 1985 tour of England. The rebel tours to South Africa had stripped the Australian team of pace bowlers. In the first Test, his match figures were 2/174, and he was omitted until the Fifth Test, when he scored 28 not out in the first innings, his highest Test score since 1977. His only wicket was Graham Gooch, giving him 200 Test wickets.[49]

Thomson never represented Australia again; he did, however, help Queensland reach the Sheffield Shield final in his last season of first-class cricket in 1985–86,[50] but they missed out to NSW.