Retirements in sport are tricky affairs. A swollen ankle, loss of form, youngsters snapping at the heels, selectors’ cold gaze or a dip in love towards the 5 a.m. gym alarm, any of these could force that ‘goodbye’ decision. Sport being that unscripted life-throbbing entity, magical farewells are often elusive.
Sir Don Bradman was dismissed for a duck, Javed Miandad got run-out and many great players slipped at the last hurdle. To perform and equally contribute to a team victory is the stuff of dreams and Stuart Broad precisely did that at the Oval under the London skies on Monday.
Helping England level the Ashes at 2-2 against the ‘old enemy’ Australia was a fitting climax to Broad’s storied career that is often juxtaposed with his great mate James Anderson. The two constituted an incredible fast bowling pair that ended up with more wickets (1039) than the much-feted earlier West Indian duo of Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose (762).
Anderson’s surgical precision and poetic ruminations, and Broad’s in-your-face attitude and ability to hustle, proved a combination that always tested rival batters. Anderson is obviously on the wane while Broad has decided that it is time to hang up his boots and perhaps catch up on golf and slip back into the commentator’s box.
Fast bowlers have it tough as all those hard yards of running take a toll. Seen in that prism, Broad’s longevity is mind-boggling. He did it his way be it the head-band, boisterous appeals, the snarl and the sledge and to top it all he had a doggedness even at the batting crease. He remained a hard-edged competitor till his last Test wicket — Alex Carey, before losing himself within Anderson’s hug. A tally of 604 Test wickets and 3662 runs besides the scalps in ODIs and T20Is, mark Broad as a great player.
Even if for a large part he had to walk in the shadows of Alastair Cook, Anderson, Joe Root and Ben Stokes, Broad carved a distinct identity. It is to Broad’s credit that be it the odd niggle, dip in form or those bruising phases like when Yuvraj Singh caned him for six sixes in an over during the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 or Jasprit Bumrah striking 35 in an over, the lanky 37-year-old always found a second wind. However, time waits for none and it is Broad’s turn to bow out. He will be missed.
