At the batting crease, V.V.S. Laxman was elegance personified, but unlike the game’s great stylists he was also one of Test cricket’s most consistent players in handling pressure, particularly in the last innings of a Test match. His match-winning middle-order feats are the stuff of a legend, so too his ability to inspire tailenders in a Test innings to fight till the end. It is a tragedy of Indian cricket that one of its finest should go out like this without a celebratory farewell game on home turf in Hyderabad. Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly could time their retirement to a nicety, but it seems to have got botched in Laxman’s case.
The selectors’ collective stand, articulated by garrulous chairman Kris Srikkanth to Laxman personally, and the harsh criticism of player-columnists with personal agendas demanding that he make way for a younger brigade piqued the gentleman-player so much that he threw in the towel a tad early. India’s collective failures in England and Australia in 2011-2012 changed the nation’s mood. Even though Laxman (337 runs at 21.06) fared worse than some others in the pantheon — Rahul Dravid (655 runs at 46.78) and Sachin Tendulkar (560 runs at 35.00) — in the eight Tests lost on the trot, what selectors didn’t heed was the thorough preparation the batsman made for the series and season ahead. Indian cricket’s notorious lack of communication skills marred what should ideally have been a fond farewell that sporting greats deserve.
What made things considerably worse was the fact that Laxman could not reach his captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who paradoxically remains incommunicado in this age of instant communication. At an emotional moment in his batsman’s life, a captain’s encouragement could have gone far with regard to calling time on a long and distinguished career.
History will record that Laxman played one of the greatest innings in adversity by an Indian Test batsman against a world champion team that had won 16 Tests on the trot and had asked India to follow on in the next. Laxman made 281 flawless runs at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, then the highest score by an Indian in Tests, and in the company of Dravid turned the Test around enabling India to record a fairy tale comeback victory.
A remarkable facet of Laxman’s 16 years in the international game is he has never once blotted his copybook by his behaviour both on and off the field. Made of such an equable temperament that he could not say boo to a mouse, a truly great sportsman walks into the sunset, but only after having lit up cricket grounds with a style and élan that will endure for years in the minds of cricket followers.