5 cricketers who bid goodbye too soon

#3 Mushtaq Ahmed

Mushtaq Ahmed retired too early, for a spinner

After Abdul Qadir from Pakistan, Mushtaq Ahmed was the next best leg-spinner by a distance. For a spinner, longevity is not a big concern like fast bowlers because the toll on the body is much lesser.

Ahmed, they say, modelled his action on Qadir which is true. He called it a day very early, one feels, as he was just 32 then, with at least a good three seasons left in him. He played 52 Tests and emerged with a total of 185 wickets.

One also has to consider the bowlers Pakistan had back then; there were the two W’s – Waqar and Wasim – and Saqlain Mushtaq was the offie they had in their ranks, so the wickets were invariably shared.

In fact, he was in supreme form when he left the game. In the county championship, he became the only bowler in five years to scalp 100 wickets in a season, helping Sussex to a historic win. Joining the un-fancied ICL was what got him out of favour but this match-winner with umpteen variations could have gone on for a while longer.