You must retire on the mountain top:

The flower that was Vaas fades away

Richard Dwight

The most opportune moment for a famed senior cricketer to retire, would be when experiencing that mountain top thrill. At his peak so to say, when there is yet a little more to give.

Where people begin to ask, why is he leaving, when he should be staying on, and to so associate him with nothing but success and remember the day of his exit with immeasurable pride.

That's how it should be, and not when you are descending down' hill, where you have cricket-wise outlived your period of usefulness, and age has begun to wither and years begun to condemn. And for those in authority, with much embarrassment having to tell you politely, that the "spirit may be willing but the flesh is weak" and that it was time to call it a day and retire from cricket.

Deceptive paceman

These were some of the thoughts that came surging to mind, when we witnessed the extraordinary world renowned Chaminda Vaas, the shrewd deceptive paceman, making his final appearance at the last cricket test match against Pakistan, at the SSC.

He was left out of the first two test matches, and as an apologetic gesture and to bid him adieu he was brought in for the third and final test match. Apart from his prowess with the ball, being the highly disciplined sportsman and gentleman that he has always been - with hardly an altercation or skirmish with those of the Cricket Board or elsewhere.

Unnecessary humiliation

Vaas would have done well, if he announced his retirement from all forms of Sri Lanka cricket, well ahead of the commencement of the Pakistan series. This would have saved him from the unnecessary humiliation, which he certainly did not deserve.

Perhaps the SLC could have accorded him a farewell dinner, where apart from the cricketers and officials, members of the Public too could have graced the occasion at a price.

If this was unwieldly, then a felicitation could be held at a public venue. We need to show our gratitude to long-standing national cricketers who by their contributions have done much to lift the image of the country.

Bear with me for striking a personal note here, and that is to say that my acquaintance with Vaas began, when I covered the Royal-Josephian cricket match at Darley Road for CDN, with Vaas being highly successful.

It was said very much earlier, that he was toying with the idea of entering the seminary. But with the progress made at cricket by him, the priesthood's loss became cricket's gain.

Then years later at a ceremony in Matara, where awards were presented by a fair number of Sri Lanka cricketers to youngsters, who had attended a cricket camp - most of the cricketers sat in the first row, while Vaas appeared isolated sitting alone in the middle of the hall to be ostracised.

Estrangement

After the function was over, I apart from other things asked him, whether there was an estrangement between him and the players, he without broadening out nodded, which indeed was a pity.

Essentially a fine team man, Vaas did well as a relentless left arm medium pacer to earn the sobriquet 'break through Vaas.' A glimpse of this was seen in his last test match, where the other bowlers had failed, he broke through a well established partnership, with a peach of a ball.

Spanning a cricket career, little over a decade and a half, he becomes Sri Lanka's second highest wicket taker with 355 wickets. Sixteen years is a fair slice in the life of Vaas, all this and more he has given ungrudgingly in the furtherance of cricket in the country.

With Vaas's departure from test cricket, an era studded with fond memories comes to an end. It is yet another passing scene in the history of Sri Lanka cricket, within which Vaas will surely have a prominent place.