Mohammad Azharuddin, the man after whom VVS Laxman seemingly moulded his batting style and also his gait, says that retirement is a very personal decision and people should not read too much into it.
Laxman surprised everyone by suddenly announcing his retirement on Saturday despite having been selected for the two-Test series against New Zealand, and it set off a wave of speculations, ranging from an “understanding with selectors” to his “differences” with captain MS Dhoni.
“There should be no discussion on Laxman’s retirement. It’s his decision and it should be left to him to decide how long he wants to play. Why do people want to make him play when he doesn’t want to?” Azharuddin told Mail Today.
“No controversy should be created over his retirement. No one likes to retire, but it’s a reality and everyone has to retire one day. His timing is okay,” said the man on whose wristy batting style Laxman seems to have moulded his own batting.
Azharuddin, however, dismissed the resemblance in batting as incidental. “The similarity happens at times,” he said in a typical understatement. Laxman batted at seven positions during 134 Tests and scored most of his 8,781 runs at No. 5 (2,877 runs) and No. 6 (2,760). But there was a time, on the tour of the West Indies in 1996-97, when he was made to open the innings after the selectors tried a host of combinations.
Laxman scored 64 in his first innings as opener, under Sachin Tendulkar’s captaincy. After missing seven Tests, when Laxman returned to the Test team in March 1998, the middle order was a chock-ablock, and captain Azharuddin asked him to open again.
“There was no room in the middle-order to accommodate him, and we also wanted an opener. So, I made him open the innings and he scored a fine 95 (and India defeated Australia by an innings),” he said. “But I don’t want to take credit for that.”
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