Farewell "Sanga" and "Clarke"...!

When a champion player is playing his retiring match, win and loss become redundant. Ending on a winning note matters but not to a greater extent, I feel. The life time memories he accumulates by playing the game over a long period of time overshadows the bitter memories, if any, of his last match if his team or he loses it. The disappointment is obviously there but it cannot impact either the player or the game much! A champion is a champion irrespective of winning or losing! 

Two of the great players of the game 'cricket' retired during the week. One on a winning note and the other on losing. While its the solid Australian player 'Michael Clarke' who ended it on a winning note in the last test of the famous Ashes series which Australian lost to England, its the Srilankan great 'Kumar Sangakkara' who ended it on a losing note in his last test for his country. Indian team has done an exceptionally good job in the match though, congratulation to the team. 

Both the players have made contribution to the game of cricket by representing their respective countries on the world stage. While Clarke had a short career comparatively, Sangakkara had a relatively longer one and needless to say that his is the name comes to our mind when we start thinking about the players who have made their clear mark on the game. Sangakkara-Jayawardane was my favorite pair for quite some time. Said to be friends and team mates played for each other and for the country in many a matches. Losing both these players in a short span of time will impact the Srilankan cricket for sure, provided the youngsters live upto the situation. 

What Clarke could achieve and Sanga did not or could not is to be in the one day internal world cup winning squad. Its a team game but not being able to achieve the world cup might disappoint Sanga! Clarke lead the young Australian team to win the world cup in 2015 in front of the home crowd. After Pointing, doing this was not easy and unexpected too! But his team raised upto the situation and won the ultimate trophy of cricket. Anyway, this cannot be any reason to differentiate or compare these two players. Both of them are greats in their own ways! 

Giving farewell is not easy but needs to be given at the right occasion. Both these players, I think, have taken right decision at right time. Farewell Sanga and Clarke. Congratulations to you on your wonderful cricketing careers. Hoping to see you guys in the IPL!