Politics in game

The sudden retirement announcement of Ravichandran Ashwin from playing international cricket would definitely be an eyebrow-raising matter.

No doubt, after the humiliating 3-0 series loss to New Zealand in India, there were some negative vibes against Ashwin. But being an obedient and sincere player, he boarded the flight to Australia.

But something seems to have gone wrong there, which would have prompted him to call it a day, that too in the middle of the series Down Under. To be frank, Ashwin is not an isolated case. There have been innumerable instances, when players from Tamil Nadu had to face humiliation and mistreatment. First person who comes to my knowledge is sacking of S. Venkatragavan, after he was the captain of the team for the first Test and demoted to 12th man in the next Test match. Then Krishnamachari Srikkanth, who had to step down from the captaincy, after his drawn Test series against Pakistan in their den.

Likewise, there were many talented cricketers, who were never given a second chance to retrieve themselves. Not only in cricket, even in politics.

 N. Mahadevan, Chennai, India