It is such a consuming, mesmerising game that the number of professional cricketers who have retired prematurely is remarkably small. Last week Zafar Ansari, five months after making his England debut, joined a select band, notable for players who are very bright or very rich or occasionally – and nauseatingly – both.
Most professionals keep going until the evidence is overwhelming that they are beyond their peak. Until recently this determination to persevere was not so much for monetary gain but because this crazy sport has the capacity to get under the skin; it is well-nigh an obsession, a guaranteed source of torment as well as the odd tantalising triumph. What sportsman fails so frequently or so publicly as a cricketer? Those failures are there in the papers every morning (well, most of them) in undeniable black and white.
Related: Zafar Ansari retires to pursue ‘other ambitions’ away from cricket
Related: The Joy of Six: footballers who voluntarily retired in their 20s | Michael Butler
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