Unable to cope with the pressure of not doing anything in the Oz tour, Vinay Kumar, yesterday told our reporters that he might retire after the T20 match. “I have thought long and hard about it and I feel that the time has come. I have made this decision keeping in mind the best interest of the team.”
“Vinay, understandably is in a weak state of mind,” said Anil Kumble who has been his mentor/bowling/popping coach during his stint with RCB. Vinay, who earned a special place in the hearts of millions of fans all over the world and Karnataka with this jumpy-action and emotional quotient dint seem to be alright since the final test match in Adelaide.
“He looked gloomy and he even skipped his usual breakfast Kangaroo fillet and a double omlette for a couple of days,” said Ashwin who shared the room with Vinay.
Vinay hasn’t been outdoors ever since his announcement and he wasn’t available for a comment. But according to some classified sources from the dressing room, Vinay was last spotted having a heated discussion with Laxman. Under anonymity, one of them revealed that Vinay left the dressing room crying after he heard the Laxman utter “Why don’t you step up? Why should it always be us?”
All that while, I was hiding behind the cooler. Vinay walked up to Laxman, who was already pissed after reading reports about his retirement and asked “Paaji, I wanna improve my game. What should I do? I want to do well for my country and retire on a high note."
He stood up looking annoyed and threw his iTouch safely on to the couch. I guess Laxman read between the lines and he seemed to be irked after hearing these words “retire on a high note,” which is reasonable since that’s all he has been hearing ever since the final test match.
“What have you done to question me? Throughout this tour you have been nothing but a baggage hopping from one ground to another. Boy! You must have nerves made of steel to walk up to me and ask me to retire. Why should it always be us? The seniors. Huh? What have you youngsters done so far? Why don’t you retire? I feel that I still have it in me. You are just 25 years old. You start your run up somewhere near the boundary line. You run in hard, take a leap just before the popping crease. All this for what? To bowl a ball clocking 125kmph and you talk about being fit and my retirement. I have promised my cousin Buntty that I will play till he makes his debut. This is how it’s gonna be. Try to make your peace with it.”
Vinay’s announcement came as quite a shock to his teammates and even to some of the commentators. Akram who once quipped Vinay to be a bounty-hopper said that it’ll take quite a while for the Indians to fill his shoes. Vinay is touted to be the second fastest bowler from Karnataka closely followed by Kumble, Praveen Kumar, Venkatapathy Raju and Venkatesh Prasad.
Another dent in our already week bowling department.
P.S Did this really happen? Nah, I made this up. But you knew that already din't you? :)~ cheers.!