5 Best Farewells in Recent Cricket History

Cricket rarely allows you dream farewells. Sport rarely allows you dream farewells. Even great children of destiny bowed out quietly and were forced to leave without fanfare or royal guards or laps of honour on the shoulders of teammates.Some like Rahul Dravid chose those farewells deliberately, after a series loss, in the middle of a quiet period for Indian cricket, through a press conference. Some like Shivnarine Chanderpaul waited too long only for their Boards to send them out unceremoniously without the honour of a last Test or a last series.Some great players have it all like Steve Waugh did, while other greats like his sibling Mark Waugh, become sacrificial scape goats, to walk into the sunset of their careers, sometimes forgotten, sometimes nudged, sometimes shoved.As Sri Lanka prepares to bid farewell to the cricketer they’ve voted as their greatest ahead of Muttiah Muralitharan, Mahela Jayawardene or Aravinda de Silva and Australia prepare to look forward to life after Michael Clarke, whose career has been abruptly ended by a devastating Ashes loss, we take a look at five cricketers history and the game were kind to, cricketers who ended on a beautiful high, revered, adored and remembered.

#5 Michael Hussey

Hussey departs

Mr. Cricket started his career a little late but with a Bradmanesque average, scoring four fifties and three centuries in his first 10 Tests, he became the fastest player at the point to score 1000 runs touching an average of 86.18 after two years.

He had trouble with bad form midway through his career and there were calls for expulsion. However, Hussey came back to be the pillar of a great team. He retired when people felt there were still two years left in him. He was supremely fit and showed that at the IPL too.

But great men leave at the peak and that was what Hussey did even though he left gaping holes in the middle order that has still not been filled. Hussey played his last six Tests at home.

In a series that Australia lost 0-1 to South Africa, Hussey was a bright ray scoring two centuries and a half-century. He followed that up with another unbeaten century against Sri Lanka which Australia won 3-0 in 2013. Peter Siddle and Mitchell Johnson carried Hussey on their shoulders around the SCG as he bid adieu to fans after seeing Australia through a tricky chase with an unbeaten 27*.

Hussey finished with 6235 runs with an average of 51.52 and 19 centuries having played 79 Tests even though his debut came after he turned 30.

#4 Tillakaratne Dilshan

Opener bows out

Dilshan was a late starter finding a permanent place in the Test side only after crossing 30. But the man who crossed 10000 ODI runs made his 87 Tests count as a dazzling opener with more than 5000 runs and 16 centuries. Dilshan played his last Test series against Bangladesh that Sri Lanka won 1-0 in March 2013.

He scored a half century and a century in the drawn penultimate Test, before scoring 57 in his last innings in a game that Sri Lanka won. Dilshan was fresh off a daddy hundred against a marauding Australia in Hobart, preceded by centuries in back to back Tests against Pakistan at home a few months before.

The retirement helped Dilshan focus on prolonging his ODI career thereby achieving legendary status becoming one of the select few batsmen to cross the hallowed 10000 mark.

#3 Mahela Jayawardene

Jaya-class

Jayawardene ended inches short of an average of 50, the benchmark of a great Test batsman, finishing on 49.84. He was a perfect team man, rarely a milestone guy as the number 149 would suggest. There was a place for him in his team too, but the man who scored close to 12000 Test runs thought enough is enough.

But, when he went, he did go in style. Mahela who came into his last Test series against Pakistan at home in form, having scored 165 against South Africa, scored two more half-centuries, 59 in the first Test and 54 in his last innings, in a series that Sri Lanka won 2-0 in August 2014.

His boys took him on their shoulders around the ground and that along with the runs is always a nice way to bid farewell to Test cricket. Jayawardene also quit when he was in the middle of a good streak, having scored five half-centuries, two centuries and a double century in his last 10 Tests.

#2 Jacques Kallis

Century to end the innings

Jacques Kallis walked into his farewell Test with just one half-century and seven wickets in his last five Tests. He was part of the team that drew 1-1 with Pakistan away from home. His team won his final series 1-0 against India.

Most importantly, Kallis was part of a big win in his last Test against India at Durban. The man scored 115 becoming one of the very few cricketers to score a century in their last knock as South Africa romped home by 10 wickets never requiring Kallis to bat in the second innings.

Kallis ended with a colossal batting average of 55.37 with 103 50 plus scores and 292 wickets, making him the greatest all-rounder at least in terms of numbers, arguably to play the game, one of the modern greats. The game that he was so gifted in playing with bucket hands, massive shoulders and a steady head, excelling in every department, allowed him to march triumphantly into the twilight.

#1 Sachin Tendulkar

Master retirement

He was probably destiny’s favourite child to play cricket. The game that denied the great Don Bradman an average of 100 in Test cricket made sure Sachin didn’t walk out on anyone else’s terms but his own.

Such was the love for the great man, the Little Master that the BCCI organised a farewell tour in India, two Tests, against West Indies at the Wankhede Stadium. Sachin received standing ovations all around the world, especially in England and Australia in spite of India’s losses.

But, he got to 100 hundreds, participated in India’s 4-0 whitewash of Australia at home and then ended his career at his home ground scoring a sublime 74. A century in his last innings would have been brilliant, but it is hard to ask for more when the game and the followers offered him so much love. Sachin who saw some tumultuous times retired having won his last six Tests in a row.

Sachin ended with a mighty average of 53.78 including 119 fifty-plus scores. That’s as satisfying as it could get!