Shaun Pollock announced his retirement from International cricket, which doesn’t come as a surprise as he has been slowly booted out in place of the younger breed of South African fast bowlers.

Pollock’s form in the last 14 months has been brilliant to say the least and yet it all adds up to the part of age where people decide that ones time is up and should give way to the younger breed. Much before his axing for the Pakistan series, incredibly Pollock was still the pick of the South African bowlers and despite that he was given the boot to make way for Steyn. Now that brings us to the question of whether a player should be forced to retire because he is getting old, though his abilities have not diminished at all? Or should there be a system in place, when you finally find someone who is better or equivalent and then make arrangements to make way for the younger talented lot, when form and ability diminishes?

Sourav Ganguly recently had expressed his views on this subject where he believed that it does not make sense for an established player to simply be dropped and made to retire because of age alone. If a player continues to perform well and better than the younger lot, they should be made to continue as long as there is no dip in ability. There needs to be competition all around. In a similar case to Pollock, Inzamam-Ul-Haq who I believe still had at least two more years of test cricket left in him faced the axe from the Pakistan cricket board.

While it makes sense to have someone like Steyn included, who is performing well and also brings in firepower into the attack with his pace, it puzzles me to find that Andre Nel is also placed above Pollock and Nel is definitely not better than a Pollock at all. Nonetheless, that is how the South Africans play their cricket and that is how they formulate their selection policies, which is fair to say that when they believe in something, they stick by it and do not engage in dilly-dallying, which is to be respected. Pollock as a true cricketer who played hard and in the right spirit has always understood that and now will gracefully bow out.

A hard working cricketer who was an excellent fielder and could wield his bat to good effect and often has saved South Africa from humiliating defeats, constructed incredible wins, Pollock can be described as an ideal cricketer, which the likes of the younger breeds around the world have a lot to learn in terms of how and in what spirit they play the game. Pollock never engaged in mindless talk. He simply made the ball do the talking and that folks, is the way cricket should be played.

When he leaves the field in his last match, there will be tons of people cheering him on and thanking him for his huge contribution to the sport of cricket and to the South African team which he served with great pride for 12 years. Thank you Shaun Pollock for the memories… You have truly been a wonderful cricketer in every aspect of the game.