Last year, we saw a slew of retirements: Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Brad Hogg, to name a few. India was able to handle the retirements well as they were already winning matches without the contributions of the retiring players. Kumble did a good job in transitioning from Dravid to Dhoni, but his form was dropping alarmingly towards the end, even if his passion was still high as ever. Australia made a hash of it, but you cannot blame the quality of players they had. It was more the lack of teamwork: no batting partnerships that turned matches and no sustained spell of hostile bowling.
Back to the present: What about this year? Which teams have candidates for retirement:
Australia: Australia already has a lot of new faces. The only persons even in the vicinity of retirement are Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey, but they probably have another 4-5 years in them. It will be an interesting competition between Ponting and Tendulkar to see who will retire with the most runs and centuries. Ponting is behind, but younger than Tendulkar by around 18 months. The number of Tests and their respective form will decide who will be on top of the Mount Everest of Test batting when they retire. Hussey is unfortunate to have been selected for Test cricket very late in his career. He has tried to make amends with a gigantic average, but it is not going to be enough.
South Africa: Kallis, perhaps? He hasn’t had a great year. Boucher, maybe? Ntini, could be, after all, fast bowlers get injured faster. When your team is on a roll, the passengers in the team get a pass (sorry for the pun!) If South Africa hit some bad patch, then we will probably see some people being eased out.
India: The most likely player to retire could be Rahul Dravid who has had a horrid run recently. Even though he hit a century in his last match, it was not too inspiring and he followed that up with a 19-ball duck. Sachin Tendulkar is not that much younger (in fact, just 3 months younger) than Dravid. The difference is that Sachin is in form and Dravid is not. India may be more tolerant of Sachin having a bad run of form, and it is very likely that Sachin may even want to play in the next World Cup. It remains to be seen which form (ODI or Test) would Sachin retire from first, or would he do both at the same time. Laxman brings up the rear – his position is more precarious than either Rahul or Sachin.
England: Michael Vaughan, who is presently out of the team, is the hands-on favorite to retire. Too many injuries. Too little form. The superb captaincy that lead to an amazing Ashes win is out of his grasp, when South Africa trounced England at home. The rest of the English lineup is young – they have a greater chance of being dropped than retiring.
Pakistan: It is difficult to predict what any member of this team would do. While one person (Afridi) retires and then comes back, another decides to put his career on hold by playing for the ICL. A would-be captain doesn’t want the captaincy, except that he is more than willing to step in during a game if the captain is injured. Just don’t give him the captaincy title. The Pakistani team is filled with superbly talent individuals who are seriously unserious about anything.
Sri Lanka: This should be Murali’s year, even though he is still taking wickets by the bucketload. He has already passed Warne and there is hardly anyone in striking distance. Sri Lanka has found an even more dangerous bowler in Mendis to take over his work. And frankly, isn’t it really boring to bowl against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe yet again? The Sri Lankan schedule also seems barren. A few ODI’s scheduled. No Tests yet. Maybe they may play against Pakistan.
New Zealand: Nobody seems likely to retire, unless they decide to play in the ICL.
West Indies: The misfortune that West Indies is faced with is that they have no youngsters playing well and their main star is the aging Chanderpaul. In his current form, Chanderpaul is unlikely to quit, but who knows what wil happen this year. One good thing about the IPL and other T20 tournaments is that it is bringing a lot of money into the game. So Carribean sportspersons, who are increasingly taking up basketball and athletics, may come back to cricket.
Bangladesh: They have a young team, but, even otherwise, before we start talking about retirements, they need to have a solid team that produces results, or at least hold their own against opposition.