When they want you to stay on

Virat Kohli kisses his bat as he celebrates reaching his century during Day Three of the first Test against Australia at Optus Stadium in Perth on November 24, 2024. Pic/AFP

His modest showing in the last Border-Gavaskar Trophy series notwithstanding, it would have been surprising had Virat Kohli not been among the runs on next month's tour of England. Even a brave selection committee/think-tank would have jitters going on an England tour without experienced batsmen. Kohli made five Test tours to England. Rohit Sharma, who announced his Test retirement too, was part of three Test visits to Old Blighty. While there is good reason to believe that the BCCI/selectors ended being unsuccessful in convincing Kohli to be part of the touring party, there is also talk in some sections of the media that India's finest batsman after Sachin Tendulkar may have been pushed to Test retirement. I'm inclined to believe that the former is true.

Cricket is littered with examples of captains, selectors, boards and even political figures attempting to change a player's mind about retirement and taking on new roles. Most of those overtures proved successful, Kohli's case falls into the ‘talks failed' category. Since Kohli is a brave batsman, let's start with an example concerning a courageous one - England's Brian Close, who was recalled in Tony Greig's team in 1976 after playing the 19th of his eventual 22 Test matches in 1967. Close, then 45 was still playing county cricket, having moved from Yorkshire to Somerset in 1971. He scored two and 36 not out in his comeback Test at Nottingham and followed it up with 60 and 46 at Lord's. Old Trafford was where he was asked to open the innings with John Edrich. In I Don't Bruise Easily, Close revealed he, "earned the right to bat in my best position [No. 4]" when Greig asked him to open the innings. Close told his captain that he hadn't opened regularly since 1957. And when Close reminded Greig that there is a player in his team (Bob Woolmer) who opens the batting the Kent, Greig said with a smile, "We think Bob Woolmer is going to be on the international scene for a long time. We don't want him killed off." Close opened at Old Trafford, faced 20 balls for his two runs before Wayne Daniel trapped him LBW and faced 108 balls from West Indies quicks for his second innings 20. When he got back to the dressing room on Day Three, unbeaten on one, after taking 77 minutes to open his account and facing the fury of Michael Holding & Co, the dressing room attendant asked him if he needed a drink. He got "bottle of whiskey" for an answer. That was the end of Close's tryst with opening the batting and his Test career.

The following year in 1977, Bob Simpson, who was done with Test cricket in 1967-68, was talked into coming out of retirement to lead Australia amidst Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket, which took away the cream of Australia cricketers.

Player-turned-journalist Jack Fingleton paid him a rich tribute for agreeing to come on board as Australia captain a few months before turning 42. Writing in Australian Cricket magazine, Fingleton wrote that Simpson had "captured the imagination of the cricket world by agreeing to lead Australia at a time of the greatest need known to a cricketing nation." Bradman, who was on a special Australian Cricket Board panel to handle the Packer-caused crisis, convinced Simpson to pad up again as it were. And though the second of his comeback series ended in defeat in the Caribbean, he did well to lead his country to a 3-2 win over a full-strength Indian team. "Sir Donald Bradman was very persuasive at that time and, naturally, I was very honoured. I was still playing club cricket, scoring as many runs as most and enjoying the game. And Australia were due to play a series against India; I still considered myself a pretty good player of spin bowling, so it all fitted in," wrote Simpson in his 1996 book The Reasons Why. And that broad Slazenger bat fetched him 539 runs that included centuries in Perth and Adelaide, where his inexperienced side won.

While Simpson was coerced into returning by Bradman, the biggest name in the game, Imran Khan was urged by his country's president General Zia-ul-Haq to return for the away series against the West Indies in 1987-88 a few months after he had retired post Pakistan's Australia-caused semi-final exit in the 1987 World Cup. The Caribbean series ended 1-1, but Imran famously went on to win the 1992 World Cup, enhancing his reputation as a true-blue leader of men. And while Imran set about moulding that Pakistan team which had a delectable mix of youth and experience, Sandeep Patil was spoken to about captaining an India team to Pakistan in 1989 amidst a players vs Board conflict. Patil had last been in an Indian team in 1986 and was playing domestic cricket for Madhya Pradesh in 1989. When he reminded the BCCI top brass that his arm was in a plaster, they asked him to remove it so that he could sign the form before giving the injured hand 15 days to heal by which time he would be ready to board the plane to Pakistan. Patil agreed but the crisis between the Board and the players was sorted out for his 1983 World Cup teammate K Srikkanth to lead the team in Pakistan. Patil recovered to continue taking MP to new heights; his first-class career ending with MP's loss to eventual champions Punjab in the 1992-93 Ranji Trophy semi-final.

Back to Kohli. Unlike batting greats like Sunil Gavaskar (1971 and 1986), Gundappa Vishwanath (1971), Dilip Vengsarkar (1986), Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman (all in 2007), Kohli couldn't witness a Test series win in England. Wonder if he could have used this as motivation to give England one last shot before we all were dealt a bullet with his Test retirement. That's if of course, the Board wanted him to be part of their England tour plans.

mid-day's Deputy Editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance. He tweets @ClaytonMurzello

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