3 lesser known facts about Dwayne Bravo

Windies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo has announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket, after having made his debut for the national team in July 2004 against England at Lord's. The 35-year-old last played and ODI for Windies on 17 October 2014. His last appearance in any format for the national team came in September 2016 but he hasn't featured in the side ever since due to the dispute of payment with the Board.

"Today I want to confirm to the cricket world that I have officially retired from international cricket in all formats of the game. After 14 years when I made my debut for the Windies , I still remember that moment I received the maroon cap before walking onto the Lord's Cricket Ground against England in July 2004. The enthusiasm and passion I felt then, I have kept with me throughout my career," Bravo said in his statement announcing retirement.

However, I must accept that for me to preserve my longevity as a professional cricketer, I must do as others before having done, leave the international arena for the next generation of players."

Bravo played crucial roles for West Indies in their triumphs at the two ICC World T20s in 2012 and 2016. He played a total of 270 international games for the team over the course of these 18 years, including 40 Test matches, 164 ODIs and 66 T20Is.

In terms of his personal statistics, Dwayne Bravo bagged a total of 2,968 runs in ODIs at an average of 25.36 while also claiming 199 wickets with his best being that of 6/43. In T20Is Bravo has a total of 1142 runs to his name at a strike-rate of 116.41. He also has 52 wickets at an economy of 8.46 in the shortest format for the Windies.

Despite all the problems he and many other marquee players like Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine and Kieron Pollard have with the WICB, it was expected that the charismatic all-rounder would put that behind and represent the Windies for the ICC World Cup, 2019. But having announced his retirement that possibility has vanished.

Here’s looking back on the career of Dwayne Bravo by throwing light on some unknown or less known facts about the all-rounder.

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#1 A caring and loving father

Bravo has two children — a daughter and son. During the World Twenty20 in 2014, Bravo changed his jersey number from 47 to 3, because his son was born on October 3, his daughter was born on August 3 and his mother too has her birthday on 3rd.

He had then said, “I just decided that in this special tournament I am going to dedicate this number three to them.”

In 2009, Bravo said in an interview about his daughter. He said, “Any child is special, but a daughter to a father is more special. I love my daughter. She means a lot to me. She is everything to me.

And in everything I do, I think about her. All this hard training that I have been going through, all this hard work that I have put in and all my aspirations are for my daughter. She must be able to live in good stature. I hope I will be there to support her to make sure that she gets the best education and best schooling. I want to make sure that she is well looked after, and she can live her life comfortably.”

What we as cricket viewers get to see is the performances of cricketers on field which captivates us. But one mustn’t discount the fact that these players give up and sacrifice a lot to get where they are. It is indeed nice to see this lesser talked about side of Dwayne Bravo- the loving and caring father to his children.

#2 Dwayne Bravo and his stint with movies

Music and Windies cricketers go hand in hand. Dwayne Bravo who is known most fondly in recent times for composing and singing ‘The Champion Song’ that became an anthem of sorts for the Windies, who went on to win the ICC World T20 2016.

Dwayne Bravo has also acted in a Tamil movie titled ‘Ula’. When he was part of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) franchise in the IPL he has danced to a song for the movie ‘Ula’ and lent his voice, which featured in the end credits of the movie.

With him having announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket, one hopes he can entertain everyone through his music videos and more appearances in movies. Dwayne Bravo featured in the song titled 'Yen Da' which he has sung along with Gaana Bala and Naveen Madhav. It's a folk Tamil song where DJ Bravo has shown off his dance movies dressed in a lungi, and the music video of 'Yen Da' has crossed more than 4 million views.

#3 Controversies: Dwayne Bravo has been involved in many

Dwayne Bravo has been involved in few controversies in his playing career. The most recent one being in 2014, during the tour of India. Dwayne Bravo was the spokesman for the players during the players' strike which resulted in the tour being cancelled half way. He was later omitted from the West Indies World Cup squad for the 2015 World Cup.

He has, along with stalwarts like Chris Gayle and Darren Sammy, been very vocal about the harsh treatment given to them post their ICC World Cup T20 2016 title win. He has come out in the open and has disclosed what is wrong between the players and the WICB and why many players want to represent their country but are unable to.

His desperation and frustration with regards to what transpired post their ICC World T20 title in 2016 meant that the all-rounder never played for the Windies ever since, which prompted him to retire from all forms of international cricket.