They are masters of the long goodbye. This time, however, the continent’s leading pace bowlers have indicated that their exits from the field could, alas, be final. Wasim Akram’s announcement of retirement this weekend may be more categorical that Javagal Srinath’s — yet an era in cricket is nearing its end. The tributes are bound to be lavish, the sendoffs misty-eyed. Rightly so. Their flannels may not be squeaky white — Akram’s matchfixing clouds and Srinath’s late-career tantrums — but they cleanly cleared the high bar for cricketing greatness: They gave proof of individual excellence and they changed forever how cricket is played.Excellence and acclaim came rather easier to Akram, with Imran Khan prophecying milestones beyond imagination for the pimply, clumsy Lahore teenager upon his 1984 debut. Three decades later, imagination is what it takes to broaden the canvas to accommodate his legacy. Over 400 Test wickets, the only bowler to claim more than 500 one-day scalps, three thousand runs in both forms of the game. But stats drift to the periphery when one considers the creative leaps in bowling he helped inspire. Even rocket scientists are bound to struggle with the physics Akram and his teammates utilised to fashion reverse swing. But they reversed a fast bowler’s psychology. He could now prosper in dry conditions, he could swing back into action, full pace, with the old ball. He could snip the tail and retrieve Tests from possible draws. Bowlers the world over benefited, but Akram remained its most flamboyant exponent.Srinath’s career trajectory has been somewhat quieter, but like Akram he’s always been large-hearted, like Akram to watch him on song is to be blessed. The Karnataka Express came to a cricketing tradition that did not quite know how to value or deploy his skills. Utilised for much of his initial years as a stock bowler, it took fierce flashes of brilliance in 1996, on fast English pitches and crumbling home ones, for India to acknowledge the genius in their midst. The burdens of being a lone crusader took their toll, and when he did quit the Test arena last year he said he had tired of being on a losing away squad. But a great’s value is measured by his legatees — and for the pace revolution now brewing among the blue caps, Srinath can take a well-deserved bow.
