The Greatest Cricket Players With The Shortest Span of a Career

There are players like Tendulkar and Murali or Miandad or Kallis who played for more than a decade and served the game of cricket by best of their abilities. However, few others either came late in the scene or perished too soon for one or the other reasons but in their respective stint, they left the desired impact on Cricket. I am enumerating some of them:

Adam Voges (Australia)

Voges, now 39, waited what seemed an eternity to earn his first Baggy Green before, in June 2015, he made his Test debut and scored 130 not out against West Indies straightaway in Roseau. He ended with a remarkable average of 61.87 from 20 Tests, having scored 1,485 runs with five centuries and four half-centuries. He played his last Test in November 2016.

Simon Jones (England)

Simon Jones had his Ashes of a lifetime in 2005 when England made history. Jones's pace and mastery of reverse-swing carried him to 18 wickets at 21 avg in four Tests, before he was forced to sit out a nervy final match due to an ankle problem. He represented England in just 18 Tests, claiming 59 wickets. His pace and mastery of reverse-swing fetched accolades from all quarters

Ryan Harris (Australia)

Ryan Harris played a key role in helping Australia win the 2013/14 Ashes. Ryan Harris played his 27th and final Test for Australia in January 2015. He took 113 wickets at 23.52. His retirement made way to another great in making- Pat Cummins.

Vinod Kambli (India)

A batsmen who was touted technically more sound than the little maestro Sachin Tendulkar, a batsmen who scored 2 back to back double 100s in his second and third test match, a batsmen who was fastest to reach 1000 runs in modern-day test cricket.

Yet he had only 17 Tests against his name. It indeed was a shame that at the age of only 24, a batsman of Vinod Kambli's prowess had played his last Test for India

Stuart Macgill (Australia)

This Aussie spin wizard was born in the wrong Shane Warne era. His tally of 208 wickets from just 44 Tests leaves little to no doubt regarding his capability or consistency

Neil Johnson (Zimbabwe)

Johnson was quite a dynamic left-handed player in the field of batting in the middle order while he bowled as a right-arm fast-medium cricketer. The highlight of his career was when the Zimbabwean cricket team qualified to the supreme stage of Super 6 for the World Cup of 1999.

He was part of a total of 48 ODIs during 1998-2000, of which he also performed in 13 Test cricket. In ODI, Neil Johnson scored 11 fifties and four hundred whereas, in test cricket, he scored four fifties and one century. His highest ODI score was 132 whereas the highest score of test cricket is 107.

Michael Hussey (Australia)

79 tests in 8 years is not a short career, indeed. But when you are talking about a cricketer of Michael Hussey you tend to think what if he played 4–5 more years (at least). Know as “Mr Cricket” Hussey took the baton from the 2000s greats of Australian batting line up and contributed in Australia’s success until his retirement in 2013. He made 6235 test runs with an astounding average of 51.52. Also, 5442 runs at 48 batting average in ODIs was cherry on the cake.

Ryan ten Doeschate (Netherlands)

Had he been part of any powerful cricket rich country he would have been the Virat or Smith for sure. Ryan ten Doeschate represented the Netherlands in 33 ODIs scoring 1541 runs at a staggering average of 67. Among his 5 hundred, two came in the 2011 World Cup

ten Doeschate had announced his shock retirement after the 2011 ODI World Cup only to come out of it in 2017 for T20I series against Namibia. The all-rounder last played a T20I against Ireland in February this year. He represented the Netherlands in recently concluded t20 world cup qualifiers.

Jonathan Trott (England)

A promising opener for England, Trott deserved that and more: 3835 Test runs at 44.08 with nine centuries, and 2819 in one-day internationals at 51.25 are excellent numbers

Beating India 4-0 at home in 2011, a double hundred against Sri Lanka the same summer, and 184 against Pakistan at Lord's the summer before against a young and threatening Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif are some of the crowning achievements of Trott's career

Other honourable mentions:

• Stuart Clark (Australia)
• Brad Hodge (Australia)
• Nathan Bracken (Australia)