Players Whose Careers Ended Without Any Fanfare

[Boags]

Pietersen doesn't fit at all. Granted it took some time for it to be clear his career was over, but there was plenty of rigmarole.

The idea of long standing players 'deserving to go out on their own terms' and getting a big farewell is a modern, more Australian one. Previously, with longer gaps between series, it became apparent a player's test career was over when they weren't picked for a series or tour.

They scapegoated him for a 5-0 whitewash when he was England's highest run scorer in the series, sacked him immediately after it and told him he'd never be picked for England again. That was one thing, but it gets worse because they lied to him and told him he could get selected for the 2015 ashes if he got big runs county cricket (obviously thinking he'd never skip the IPL to do that), and he did, and they still refused to pick him while Gary Ballance gets picked in the test team... the moral of the story is: don't **** with Andrew Strauss.

 

[Majestic]

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

Dravid did had a long press conference where he announced his retirement.

 

[tony p]

Ben Hilfenhaus. Finished with 99 Test Wickets.
Just seemed to fade away/disappear. I think probably injuries were his main concern.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Mitch Marsh: loading...

 

[govinda indian fan]

Mitch Marsh: loading...

Virat kohli and rohit fatman sharma loading

 

[LangleyburyCCPlayer]

In a slightly earlier era: Boycott had a substitute fielding for him in the 4th Test in India in 1982, went off to play golf and was sent home. He might have played a few more Tests after that but went on the South Africa tour.

Doesn't fit the thread title of course, but John Arlott's final commentary is worth a mention, as he made no mention at all of the occasion - but then the PA announced what had happened and the whole ground applauded him.

And people say he wouldn't have fit the Bazball mould!

 

[mr_mister]

Kinda cold from CA.

Healy had apparently kicked up a bit of a stink in '97 when he was dropped from the ODI side for Gilchrist, who almost immediately excelled.

He'd already gotten a year of two longer in tests than he deserved tbh, he had little to complain about

In his last 16 test innings he'd been dismissed 16/16 times for a score under 20. Whatever limited batting ability he once possessed was truly gone

 

[Blenkinsop]

Matthew Hoggard. Seem to remember England were on a dismal tour of NZ where their batters weren't getting any runs. Instead of changing the batting lineup the selectors binned Hoggard which looked unfair. It was only years later it was revealed that there was some crisis in his personal life at the time.

 

[Skyliner]

Tim Southee. A brass band didn't accompany him off the field as he departed the scene which I felt was a tad ungracious from NZC, and there was no ticker tape parade down the main street of Hamilton either.

 

[Qlder]

Any Aussie that didn't play their last test at home

Border, Thomson, Alderman, Gillespie, Healy, Jones, Slater...

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Virat

 

[Yeoman]

Matthew Hoggard. Seem to remember England were on a dismal tour of NZ where their batters weren't getting any runs. Instead of changing the batting lineup the selectors binned Hoggard which looked unfair. It was only years later it was revealed that there was some crisis in his personal life at the time.

This was when Harmison and Hoggard were dropped for Anderson and Broad and the rest is history. It didn’t seem at the time that this was the end for Hoggard however he never regained his effectiveness. It was probably the right call to make but definitely fits this category.

 

[Coronis]

This was when Harmison and Hoggard were dropped for Anderson and Broad and the rest is history. It didn’t seem at the time that this was the end for Hoggard however he never regained his effectiveness. It was probably the right call to make but definitely fits this category.

Still can’t believe someone better than Lillee got dropped for Anderson and Broad

 

[Prince EWS]

Still can’t believe someone better than Lillee got dropped for Anderson and Broad

To be fair, Anderson and Broad also turned out to be better than Lillee.

(Side-note: pretty sure how I'm changing the bowling formula for the standardised averages when I eventually update them will put Lillee up a few places, ahead of Hoggard, which will destroy that meme - makes me less keen to actually update it properly)

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

To be fair, Anderson and Broad also turned out to be better than Lillee.

(Side-note: pretty sure how I'm changing the bowling formula for the standardised averages when I eventually update them will put Lillee up a few places, ahead of Hoggard, which will destroy that meme - makes me less keen to actually update it properly)

Do the update, just manually force Lillee down some spots and don't tell us you did that.

 

[Prince EWS]

Do the update, just manually force Lillee down some spots and don't tell us you did that.

I just checked and Lillee took a higher percentage of tailend wickets than Hoggard which may even make what I said not true anyway.

This little quirk will be fixed though which should help Lillee quite a bit:

Possible explanation for Lillee's low rating

Like others I think there is a problem with the Lillee and other Australian bowlers of that era.

I do have a possible explanation -

In the period 1969 --> 1985

* Australian (top 6) Batting averages where 25% higher when Lillee plays compared to when he did not. Its 20% if you exclude WSC. That's like replacing Steve Waugh with Don Bradman.
* Bowling averages of many of the Australian Fast bowlers (Thomson, Walker, Lawson, Hogg) are 15% higher when Lillee plays.

I do not know if the boost to the batting average was caused by flatter wickets or something else. This would mean the Country pitch analysis used in the calculation is wrong (to bowler friendly) for Lillee (and other Australian bowlers of the era).

A second factor is during World Series cricket, batting averages in Australia where lower than normal. That will make Australia seem more bowler friendly than it really was.

References:

Batting average when Lillee plays

Batting Average with Lillee is not playing

It seems like throughout his career - even ignoring the WSC period - he missed most of the games on the spicier pitches, and because country pitches were treated more on an era basis than a per game basis it was over-penalising him for favourable pitches he didn't get to actually bowl on.

 

[mr_mister]

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

If Lillee don't get ya, Thommo must.

 

[Coronis]

I just checked and Lillee took a higher percentage of tailend wickets than Hoggard which may even make what I said not true anyway.

This little quirk will be fixed though which should help Lillee quite a bit:



It seems like throughout his career - even ignoring the WSC period - he missed most of the games on the spicier pitches, and because country pitches were treated more on an era basis than a per game basis it was over-penalising him for favourable pitches he didn't get to actually bowl on.

Maybe he was an even bigger inspiration to Australia’s batting than Border was to Burgey.

I would be curious to see how having a great bowler on your team would affect a batsman’s stats. (I presume it would have a bigger effect on lesser batsmen)

 

[Prince EWS]

Maybe he was an even bigger inspiration to Australia’s batting than Border was to Burgey.

I would be curious to see how having a great bowler on your team would affect a batsman’s stats. (I presume it would have a bigger effect on lesser batsmen)

Australia's bowling averages were higher when he played too so I think it was just a fluke of him missing games on greener pitches.

... unless he was having a negative impact on the bowling attack.

 

[Coronis]

Australia's bowling averages were higher when he played too so I think it was just a fluke of him missing games on greener pitches.

... unless he was having a negative impact on the bowling attack.

Hogged the ball too much, as it were.