fredfertang
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That's what happens if you bowl a doosra
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Zafar Ansari announces retirement aged 25
- Thread starter Black_Warrior
- Start date
SillyCowCorner1
Moooo
Why so soon? Should have retire when the batting average jumps over Voges'
Biryani Pillow
U19 Vice-Captain
His family are very intelligent and very professional people.
Not a question of really disliking professional cricket. From a little bit of inside knowledge I'm aware that, while he thoroughly enjoyed the game, it was never something that dominated his life.
vcs
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Now that's certainly something he's got in common with James Taylor..
indiaholic
International Captain
From the King Cricket blog:
Each to his own and all that, but the “new chapter” in Zafar Ansari’s life sounds dull as **** to us. He’s retired from cricket at the age of 25 to pursue another career, “potentially in law”.
We’ve been here before. We’ve been here several times. There was James Bruce, who retired at 28 in favour of a career ‘in the City’ and there was Alex Loudon shortly before him.
We wrote about these bizarre decisions for The Wisden Cricketer in 2007 and looking back on that piece, it seems Loudon left cricket in favour of “a corporate advisory firm”. We’ve still no concrete grasp on what that might mean, but we do know that the words alone make us feel hollow and slightly tearful about the fundamental meaninglessness of existence.
To try and gain some insight into WHY IN HELL a man might make such a decision, we spoke to Paul Downton (yes, that one) who carved out a successful career in finance after he retired from cricket (in his thirties) and was at the time working as a director at a firm called Cazenove.
We can’t find our notes from that interview, but we remember him telling us that it would be tough for these players to turn down the opportunity to embark on what would surely prove to be highly lucrative careers. He had to tell us this several times because each time he said it, we responded with some uncomprehending version of “but… they were cricketers?”
Perhaps we’re a bit of a simpleton, but our view has always been that you only get one crappy body and it’s slowly dying from the moment you’re born. Using that body to play sport – and play it well – during the relatively short window when that’s an option has always seemed to us to be one of the absolute finest uses of one’s time.
But as we said at the top, each to his own. Loudon saw things differently. He admitted to us that he’d miss cricket at times, but added: “Mostly I’ll have my head firmly in front of a computer screen and thinking of exciting things in my future career.”
Each to his own and all that, but the “new chapter” in Zafar Ansari’s life sounds dull as **** to us. He’s retired from cricket at the age of 25 to pursue another career, “potentially in law”.
We’ve been here before. We’ve been here several times. There was James Bruce, who retired at 28 in favour of a career ‘in the City’ and there was Alex Loudon shortly before him.
We wrote about these bizarre decisions for The Wisden Cricketer in 2007 and looking back on that piece, it seems Loudon left cricket in favour of “a corporate advisory firm”. We’ve still no concrete grasp on what that might mean, but we do know that the words alone make us feel hollow and slightly tearful about the fundamental meaninglessness of existence.
To try and gain some insight into WHY IN HELL a man might make such a decision, we spoke to Paul Downton (yes, that one) who carved out a successful career in finance after he retired from cricket (in his thirties) and was at the time working as a director at a firm called Cazenove.
We can’t find our notes from that interview, but we remember him telling us that it would be tough for these players to turn down the opportunity to embark on what would surely prove to be highly lucrative careers. He had to tell us this several times because each time he said it, we responded with some uncomprehending version of “but… they were cricketers?”
Perhaps we’re a bit of a simpleton, but our view has always been that you only get one crappy body and it’s slowly dying from the moment you’re born. Using that body to play sport – and play it well – during the relatively short window when that’s an option has always seemed to us to be one of the absolute finest uses of one’s time.
But as we said at the top, each to his own. Loudon saw things differently. He admitted to us that he’d miss cricket at times, but added: “Mostly I’ll have my head firmly in front of a computer screen and thinking of exciting things in my future career.”
ImpatientLime
International Regular
alex loudon sounds like a boring ****.
crap doosra as well.
crap doosra as well.
_Ed_
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Having thought about it some more, I think it was his wording that I initially objected to, and that was the reason for my quick-fire, poorly-thought-through comment (in my defence, I was operating on less than three hours' sleep at the time).
If he had said that the lifestyle of being a professional cricketer wasn't or was no longer suitable for him, I would have been far more understanding and sympathetic. I guess I interpreted his "cricket is just one aspect of my life" remark as being a little arrogant and perhaps a bit dismissive of people who would dearly love to make cricket their life and are unable to. But I'm sure that wasn't his intention, so it was wrong of me to take it that way.
If he had said that the lifestyle of being a professional cricketer wasn't or was no longer suitable for him, I would have been far more understanding and sympathetic. I guess I interpreted his "cricket is just one aspect of my life" remark as being a little arrogant and perhaps a bit dismissive of people who would dearly love to make cricket their life and are unable to. But I'm sure that wasn't his intention, so it was wrong of me to take it that way.
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vcs
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Mario Ancic did very well pursuing a career in law after his tennis career was cut short by mononucleosis. He's an investment banker in Wall Street now. So there's precedent for this.
Magrat Garlick
Rather Mad Witch
Revolutionary Communist MP for Islington in 2022 imo. Wasn't he the guy who wanted Rosa Luxembourg in his slip cordon?
theegyptian
International Vice-Captain
Never really came off as arrogant in the interviews I saw of him. Nerdy and an intellectual sure, and probably a little uncomfortable in the somewhat macho, banal dressing room culture of team sports.
Ansari in interviews never gave off the impression of someone who was entirely in love and dedicated to cricket. More just something that he did as a pastime and was very good at.
Ansari and James Taylor are opposite on the scale of professional cricketers imo.
Taylor the guy who dedicated his life to cricket and was basically all he had done since he was young and all he really had in his life. That's why I had tremendous sympathy for Taylor when he had to retire. He dedicated his life to cricket (and didn't have much else) and it was taken from him when he was just coming to his peak. He probably had never thought of what he was going to do with his life other than cricket.'
Ansari the more uncommon guy (in cricket) as someone who cricket wasn't the be all and end all of his existence, and wasn't his only good option in life. He probably figured he wasn't quite up to international standard at the moment and didn't have the desire and love for the game to really commit to improving (which Taylor had done).
Nothing wrong with either and no reason to bash Ansari because Taylor unfortunately can't play.
Most of us on here are cricket fanbois and would have loved nothing more than a professional career in cricket. I certainly did and envy professional cricketers but it doesn't bug me that Ansari has retired early. Whatever makes you happy at the end of the day. It's different for different people. I think that kingcricket blog post is stupid tbh. Most of the population would think being a professional cricketer is 'dull as ****'.
Bijed
International Regular
A few people in the comments section for various articles about this seem to be saying things along the lines of "he'd walk in to the county side and might play for England again so why would he retire?". For me the one and only key thing here is that he doesn't want to play professional cricket any more, so why should he?
From the blog post Indiaholic posted above
Anyway, before I annoy (and probably contradict) myself by going on a rant about all that, I'll leave it there and just say good luck to Zafar Ansari!
From the blog post Indiaholic posted above
This sort of thing is actually something that can quite annoy me sometimes - when people seem to struggle to accept that different peoplehave their own thoughts, tastes, feeling, ideas, opinions, values etc which won't necessarily (in fact are unlikely to) match or conform to their own.
Anyway, before I annoy (and probably contradict) myself by going on a rant about all that, I'll leave it there and just say good luck to Zafar Ansari!
indiaholic
International Captain
Don't know why people are reading it as king cricket literally not understanding Ansari. The tone is semi humourous throughout.
When people say they don't understand why any one would do something all it means is that they don't see themselves ever making those choices. Don't see what is wrong with that.
When people say they don't understand why any one would do something all it means is that they don't see themselves ever making those choices. Don't see what is wrong with that.
flibbertyjibber
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He did give that Middleton bird one though so give him credit for that.
Bijed
International Regular
Yeah, fair enough, I hadn't actually come across the blog before which probably contributed to my misinterpreting the tone.
Yeah, I'm probably being unfair, but with some people there's a definite implication that other people are basically stupid for not sharing their thoughts or whatever. which is how I (wrongly) read the article at first.
srbhkshk
International Captain
Cricket fans being cricket fans are obviously going to be biased about the decisions, especially given that most of us would sell our souls to get 1 day of international cricket under our belt. In the end though it's just a guy picking 1 profession out of the choices he has, we all have made / will make such choices in life and there is no reason to begrudge him for that.