Most cricketers have moments which define their legacy. MS Dhoni has the six over the bowler's head at the Wankhede Stadium which guided India to the 2011 ODI World Cup win. Shane Warne has his trademark leg-spinner disturbing Andrew Strauss' woodwork as the maestro reached 700 wickets in front of a packed home crowd at the MCG on Boxing Day.
As Sreesanth retires, what are the moments that you can recall about the fickle cricketer?
There's a snorter of an incoming bouncer to Jacques Kallis which twisted him like a bow, the celebration after he hit a six off Andrew Nell, the rattled poles of Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden in the 2007 T20 World Cup semi-final and, of course, the Misbah-ul-Haq catch which took India to glory in the inaugural T20 World Cup.
Have a glance at S Sreesanth's stats and they are perfectly ordinary. An average of 37.59 in Test cricket, 33.44 in ODIs and 41.14 in T20 Internationals. Add to that his penchant for leaking runs left, right and centre and you are left scratching your head as to why he went on to play 27 Test matches, 53 ODIs and 10 T20 Internationals for India.
In fact, he was so expensive that he sits at the sixth place in the list of worst career economy rates among bowlers to have bowled a minimum of 1000 deliveries in one day Internationals.
Sreesanth gave away runs at 6.07 from the 412.4 overs he bowled in one day Internationals between 2005 and 2011. At the same time, he has the honour of being a World Cup winner. Now, how many of us can brag about that?
Clearly, the career of the enigmatic cricketer cannot be summed up in numbers. He was more about spells and flashes of brilliance. Flashes in which he looked absolutely world class, threatening to blow away even the best of batters. At other times, when you saw one delivery short and wide, cut to the point fence for a boundary, and the next one, full and down the leg side, glanced to fine leg for four, you couldn't help but wonder what the hothead was all about.
Sreesanth did enough to feature in a couple of viral videos upon his return to top-flight domestic cricket as he bowled some trademark out-swinging peaches in the Syed Mushtaq Ali and the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
Unfortunately for him, his dream of making an India comeback, as was inevitable, came to a heartbreaking end with his decision to hang his boots after an uneventful and rather low-key Ranji Trophy match.
Sreesanth represented Kochi Tuskers Kerala, Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) and Rajasthan Royals in the IPL where he finished, and quite abruptly so, with 40 wickets from 44 matches at 29.85 and an economy rate of 8.14.
The inconsistency and mindless aggression was there for everybody to see, but so was his rhythmic action, impeccable wrist position and the way the ball landed on the seam -- arguably the best exponent of the out-swinger in India after Kapil Dev.
Sreesanth had the knack of rushing the batsmen with his pace and the ability to jag the ball copiously as the great Sachin Tendulkar found out after being trapped in front of the wickets in a Challenger Trophy match in the early 2000s.
Having sprung up on the scene with contemporaries Munaf Patel and RP Singh, Sreesanth would perhaps be the first one to admit that he achieved to the least of his potential among the three quicks.
A true reflection on his career cannot end without the mention of the Slap Gate with Harbhajan Singh, which threw up some other unpleasant visuals, and the IPL spot fixing scandal which ended up shaking the entire system, with even the biggest of the the big bigwigs having to step aside following the Lodha Committee reforms; something which perhaps wouldn't have become a reality without Sreesanth.
“I had played the Irani Trophy and was looking to play the South African series so that we can win in September 2013. We were going early, and it moves better in September. My goal was to play that series. A person like that, why would I do it, that too for 10 lakhs? I am not talking big but I used to have bills of around 2 lakhs when I partied around,” said Sreesanth in a recent interview.
While the pace bowler still denies his involvement in the act, some explosive regulations might be coming up in a tell-all book or a biopic, now that he has decided to walk into the sunset.
"Sreesanth takes the catch, India win the World Cup."
Until next time, these iconic lines from Ravi Shastri will continue playing on a loop in a parallel universe where Sreesanth did not make a dog's meal of a career that could have found a place among the best pace bowlers that India ever produced.
(Saksham Mishra is a failed cricketer turned sports writer who justifies hours of watching sports by scribbling down a few logical lines that might just about hold your interest.)
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