Younis makes mockery of retirement process

Younis Khan’s abrupt decision to retire from One-Day International cricket after playing just one match in this series has made a mockery of the custom of cricketers retiring from the game.

Though he is one of Pakistan’s finest batsmen, this temperamental decision will go down as a black mark in his career.

Younis had earlier hit out at the selectors and challenged them to build a winning One-day squad without him. When selected, he decided to play just one match and called quits. This can only be conceived as playing a joke on the selectors!

In his farewell announcement, Younis said he felt it was time to call it a day. This makes one wonder how he could take this decision in just one day and that too after the first match of a series! Cricketers who have retired say they are able to sense in advance that its time for them to hang up their boots. Maybe Younis felt that like One-day cricket which is known as instant cricket, the decision to retire from this brand of cricket should also be instant!

If that is not the case, then his decision to retire after challenging the selectors was merely to prove how fickle the selection committee was, and show them incapable of taking a strong decision against him despite his inconsistent performance in One-day cricket.

Younis is always seen to be sporting on the field, applauding good performances even from his opponents, and always said that he played for the team, so this final act has left a blemish on his career. A team combination for a series is made after a lot of thinking by the coach and the captain, who put in a lot of faith in players who could be playing the entire series.

Through this act, he has also destroyed all chances of any cricketer who has consistently performed well in Test cricket to stake his claim for a place in the One-day squad. Selectors may well be wary of other players doing a Younis act, and hence could decide to face flak for not selecting a player rather than be made to look like jokers after selecting them.

Any cricket board or selection committee must be strong in their decisions and never let players rise above the game or the team. It was surprising to see Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) honour Younis during the second One-day just hours after PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan had criticised him for his decision to retire abruptly.

It may be remembered that after the first One-day match win, the Pakistan team had dedicated their victory to Younis. In that case the second match defeat should also be dedicated to him for ‘deserting’ the team.