He's gone ... perhaps

A little more than two years after he first retired from international cricket only to reverse that decision two days later and six months after he decided to retire yet again, followed by a hasty clarification that he hadn't officially retired yet, Khaled Mahmud, Bangladesh's former captain, finally retired from international cricket after scoring 36 and taking no wickets in the first one-dayer against Sri Lanka yesterday.

He thus ends(?) his career with a test batting average of 12.09 and a test bowling average of 64 and corresponding one-day stats of 14.36 and 42.76. On the basis of those, it is fair to say he was a better one-day player than a test player. But given that he had finally managed to inch his batting average above 12 for the first time after a while and nearly halved his bowling average in his last few tests, including taking seven wickets at Multan where Bangladesh came so close to victory, it perhaps indicates that he was finally sorting out his batting and his bowling. However, given his abysmal (and that is a rather charitable way of describing it) international record, he will not be considered for inclusion in the "retired and playing book cricket" XI.

Then again, you never know with Khaled Mahmud. He may just surprise us all by withdrawing his retirement announcement and thus going past Imran Khan who currently holds the record for the most number of times he retired and reconsidered his retirement.

Labels: book cricket, retire