A cricketer only calls time when he knows that he has had "enough" and something must have snapped within Ravichandran Ashwin when he decided to announce his retirement , former India opener WV Raman, who also happens to be his first-class coach, said on Wednesday
Ashwin, India's second highest wicket-taker in Tests with 537 scalps announced his international retirement after India drew with Australia in the third Test in Brisbane.
"I think there has been an instance before when a cricketer retired during a series. It's not the first time this has happened. Secondly, a cricketer retires when he feels that he's had enough," Raman, one of the most respected cricket voices in the country, told PTI during an interaction.
Raman said that no cricketer knows when exactly that realization comes but it does one fine day.
"It's all a case of things slowing down in one's mind or suddenly a cricketer gets a feeling that oh, enough! I can't really go through this routine of getting up or training, going to the ground, doing things over and over again.
"There's no saying as to when suddenly this snap happens in the mind. But when that happens, that's when a cricketer decides to call it a day," Raman, who as a coach worked with a young 20-year-old Ashwin making his Tamil Nadu debut, said.
In case of Ashwin, Raman felt that he probably knew that hanging around wouldn't have made a lot of difference.
"He has been around for a long, long time. Perhaps, he must have felt that if he's not going to really make any difference or make any contribution, there's no point in hanging around.
"Let's face it for somebody who has been as combative and as competitive as Ashwin has been, and for a match-winner that he's been over a long period of time, it's not a great situation to be thinking in his mind "To be or not to be", what is better."
For Ashwin, it was perhaps deciding "one way over other" once and for all.
"He decides one way or the other. That's exactly what he's done when it's obviously perhaps, snapped in his mind that now it's pointless, and there's absolutely no motivation left. I think that's when a cricketer calls it a day. I think that's what has happened with Ashwin as well."
Why Ashwin was different?
What Raman liked instantly about a young Ashwin walking into the Tamil Nadu dressing room was not being afraid to ask questions.
"He was very free-spirited. He was very curious, and he was fearless in approaching people and talking to them and asking questions and grilling them.
"And that's something that made him stand apart from the rest, because normally youngsters, when they're just getting into the first-class scenario, or they make it to the state side, they tend to be reticent.
"They also try and assess as to what would be the ideal time to talk to a few people? Or is it okay to talk to people too much," Raman recalled his early days.
"But Ashwin never had any such questions crossing his mind, but he had a lot of questions for the others, which I thought was something different about him.
"He was genuinely interested in trying to learn and try and discuss as much as possible, and the impression that you'd also get if you were to have two or three discussions with him is that that this boy is absolutely cricket mad," Raman recalled about one of his favourite wards.
Funny Incident
Raman, who is known for his sense of humour, recollected an incident during Ashwin's first season.
"Today, when I think about it, I laugh."
He then narrated the incident.
"In the first season that I was coach of Tamil Nadu, I think we had a bad game against Karnataka and needed to win last couple of games to stay in Elite group.
"So everybody was asked to give their viewpoint and also see if we can get any solution from any one of them, because sometimes the players come out with better suggestions than the coaches or the entire group of support staff.
"So Ashwin being Ashwin, says, "Sir, I'll tell you something here which, because I don't think you are aware of it, and he said. "I can bat reasonably well, so you can possibly look at sending me up the order."
Raman cracks up even today.
"You know, if at all, you're giving marks for timing, you would give him a minus 100 for that statement of his at that point. As we were heading back to the hotel, I couldn't control myself.
"It was so hilarious to think of a young man suddenly out of nowhere without realizing the situation or without even pausing to think as to how it will be received, or whether it's the right time to talk about his own abilities, he just comes out with it without a problem, and that was, I think, his strength as well, which also could have been his weakness later on, at some points in life for him.
"But full marks term for being his own righteous self through his cricketing career. And he has had a great career," Raman concluded.
