While some have chosen another sport after cricket life to remain physically active, there are some who have explored others options, like venturing into business. But there are other tales where players are struggling to make ends meet
It is always tough for a cricketer to give up playing. Retirement is a phase which brings mixed emotions for players. Every cricketer finds it hard to quit his favourite sport. And once you hang up your boots there is always that temptation to come back.
While some have chosen another sport after cricket life to remain physically active, there are some who have explored others options, like venturing into business. But there are other tales where players are struggling to make ends meet.
Right from English all-rounder Andrew Flintoff taking up professional boxing, to Joginder Sharma, who bowled the historic last over in the final of the inaugural World T20 in 2007, becoming a police officer in Haryana after retirement, these men don't seem to have the will to spare a moment resting.
There's also Sri Lankan all-rounder Sanath Jayasuriya, who has served as a Member of Parliament for the Matara district in the Asian Island among them. Also, there is 1996 World Cup winning Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga who too entered politics.
Amid all the good stories, here are six former cricketers who have been managing their lives doing unusual jobs
The Pakistani off-break bowler, Arshad Khan, represented the green outfit in nine Tests, picking up 32 wickets. It was a bit of a roller-coaster career.
Having been the first to be picked for the West Indies tour back in 1997-98, he's also played the following year for the team which won the Asian Test Championship in Dhaka against Sri Lanka.
Arshad having been a regular player in the Pakistani squad, until 2001, was subsequently dropped leading to his return to domestic cricket.
Called back again in 2005 for the one-day international series against England, he bowled economically but could not establish himself in the playing XI on a permanent basis. Right after his retirement, Arshad relocated to Australia where he turned into a cab driver.
Having played county cricket for Sussex, Shepherd also played 22 Tests for England, scoring three centuries.
With a great first-class career, playing 230 matches and scoring as many as 45 centuries alongside, he was widely thought to be one of the great post-war batsmen in county cricket.
Soon after his career reached the end, he became one of the most outspoken bishops of the Church of England.
In 2005, after fighting a long battle with cancer, he passed away.
Chris Old was recognised as a regular member in the English bowling attack from the year 1972 to the early 80s. Having made his debut in Kolkata in December 1972, his first wicket was of the great Sunil Gavaskar. Despite having picked up six wickets in the match and scoring 50 runs across both innings, he sadly ended up on the losing side as India won by 28 runs.
Post retirement, he ran a fish and chips restaurant partnered by his wife Letita on Praa Sands, Cornwall.
Old's most prominent contribution to the England side is known to be during the 1981 Ashes when he put on a 67-run partnership with Ian Botham for the ninth wicket and he also took the crucial wicket of Alan Border, for a duck.
He's renowned as the only cricketer having played in both the centenary matches against Australia – in 1977 at Melbourne and in 1980 at Lord’s.
Once termed the next Ian Botham, Chris Lewis was an effective all-rounder. Despite that, his career did not make a big impact. He played 32 Tests for England picking up 93 wickets including three five-wicket hauls.
With his only century which came against India in Chennai in 1993, on his birthday, that innings was able to bring him under the limelight but he was unable to reproduce such performances. Lewis signed off by playing his last Test on August 26, 1996 against Pakistan.
After retirement, what came off as quite shocking was Lewis's sentence to 13 years’ imprisonment in 2009 for smuggling liquid cocaine with having reportedly tried to smuggle £140,000 worth of the banned drug into the UK by hiding it in fruit juice tins in his cricket bags.
Cairns was one of the most efficient and aggressive all-rounders in the world. He took 218 wickets in Tests and 201 wickets in ODIs. He had even smashed nine centuries. But the way he ended up his career was quite unacceptable. In 2006, he bid goodbye to international cricket. In 2013, he participated in the Indian Cricket League (ICL) where he was accused of getting involved in match-fixing. Later, in 2014, he was found doing a job of cleaning bus shelters in Auckland.
Not all stories are sad though...
Curtly Ambrose was known to be an unstoppable force back in the 1990s along with his country-mate Courtney Walsh. Their partnership in the West Indian bowling ranks was if simply put, outstanding; despite having a weak batting line-up, the duo of Ambrose-Walsh led the team to win many memorable matches.
Ambrose in total played 98 Tests and picked up 405 wickets at an average of 20.99, alongside 225 ODI scalps in 176 matches for the Windies. One of his spells, against England back in 1994 where he picked up six wickets for 24 runs, was especially pointed out as breathtaking – the Three Lions were so petrified of his bowling that they got all out for a mere 46 runs.
After having retired in 2000, Ambrose joined the “Dread and The Baldhead”, an Antiguan reggae band, as a bass guitarist.
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