{"id":4945,"date":"2016-06-02T15:14:24","date_gmt":"2016-06-02T09:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4945"},"modified":"2026-07-17T21:23:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T15:53:34","slug":"ambati-rayudu-world-cup-retirement-cricket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=4945","title":{"rendered":"Was Ambati Rayudu Really Given a Raw Deal?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\u00a0\n

I<\/span>f there is one thing that human beings are very bad at, it\u2019s foresight.\n\n<\/p>Think back to a year ago, when Virat Kohli made the grand proclamation that their endless search for the number four position had finally ended with Ambati Rayudu, who had made a dramatic comeback to international cricket after many years in the wilderness. A winning IPL campaign with the<\/span> Chennai Super Kings<\/span><\/a> in 2018 seemed to boost his case. But a year is an eternity in sport. AB de Villiers, who shocked the world by announcing his retirement last year, supposedly tried to gain a backdoor entry into the South African team only to be politely told that the door was permanently closed for him and that other players had taken his place. So much can happen in a year.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nA year ago, if anyone had told Ambati Rayudu that come the <\/span>World Cup<\/span><\/a>, he would be sitting at home, disgruntled, hurt, and announcing his retirement, he would have laughed.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nIf anyone had told Ambati Rayudu, who was captain of the India-A side in 2004 and touted as the next big thing in Indian <\/span>cricket<\/span><\/a>, that he would have to wait nine more years before he finally played for India, he would have been aghast.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nIf anyone had told Ambati Rayudu when he defected to the rebel ICL that he would be forgiven for all his sins, and come back and win not one but four<\/span> IPL<\/span><\/a> titles with two of the best franchises in the tournament (Mumbai Indians and CSK), he would have told them to keep dreaming.\u00a0<\/span>\n\"rayudu_world\n\nThere are countless players like Rayudu whose sporting dreams remain just dreams, but each unfulfilled dream is different from the other.\n\nScott Barbour\/Getty Images\n\nIt can be argued that Rayudu, like countless other cricketers, didn\u2019t do justice to his talents. His repeated run-ins with authorities, team-mates, and even a <\/span>senior citizen<\/span><\/a>, showed the portrait of an angry young man who threw a fit if he didn\u2019t get his way. There are countless players like Rayudu whose sporting dreams remain just dreams, but each unfulfilled dream is different from the other.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nAmol Mazumdar played Ranji cricket for 21 years for<\/span> Mumbai <\/span><\/a>and was a prolific scorer, but he never donned the India jersey even once. VVS Laxman played what is arguably the greatest Test innings ever and yet, come the 2003 World Cup, he was left out of the squad in favour of Dinesh Mongia, who didn\u2019t have much of an impact on the tournament. Vinod Kambli and S Sreesanth had careers that became monuments to unfulfilled dreams and talent, leaving everyone banging their heads in frustration.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nTo set the record straight, Rayudu didn\u2019t exactly gain the trust of the selectors and captain with all the matches he played before the World Cup. His spot on a flight to <\/span>England<\/span><\/a> was shaky at best and with the advent of Vijay Shankar, who could bat as well as bowl a little, the door for Rayudu was closed. His exclusion set off a chain of events which included mistakes made by him as well as the selectors.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nRayudu\u2019s jibe at the selectors with his tweet about buying <\/span>3D glasses<\/span><\/a> was one sent in disappointment and one which would come to haunt him later. After the squad was announced, Rayudu was named one of the reserves, which meant that in the eventuality of any player getting injured, he was in the pipeline to be called in. No one envisioned that injuries would derail Shikhar Dhawan\u2019s as well as Vijay Shankar\u2019s World Cup and that reserves would eventually have to be called in. After those two injuries, Rayudu would have thought that he was in line for a flight to England.\u00a0<\/span>\n

In a team sport, Rayudu has always cut an individualistic figure, embattled and alone.<\/blockquote>\nInstead, the selectors picked Mayanak Agarwal over him, someone who wasn\u2019t even in the reserves. Seen through an unemotional lens, it might actually be a better decision. Mayanak Agarwal can open and KL Rahul can bat at number four, giving the team more options. Had Rayudu been roped in, he could not have opened and would have taken only the number four slot. So it seems a little preposterous to assume that it was just a tweet that ended his World Cup <\/span>dreams.<\/span><\/a>\n\nHowever, it can\u2019t be denied that Rayudu\u2019s clashes with the authorities, the latest incident being the controversial tweet, have hampered his growth as an international <\/span>cricketer<\/span><\/a>. In a team sport, Rayudu has always cut an individualistic figure, embattled and alone. And though he possessed a gift for scoring runs, making connections was never his strong suit.<\/span>\n\nThroughout his career, Rayudu has often rubbed his fellow players and BCCI administrators the wrong way with his belligerent antics. Even before he gained notoriety on a national level, he was fighting during Ranji games with opposition players, with one scuffle in 2005 even seeing Rayudu attacked with a stump. In the 2016 IPL season, Rayudu engaged in a very public on-field argument with senior bowler Harbhajan Singh, a clash recorded for posterity. And just last year, the<\/span> BCCI<\/span><\/a> banned him for two games because he was confronting the umpire during domestic games against Karnataka. Perhaps his exclusion from the squad wasn\u2019t decided solely on the basis of his talent, but also his conduct, which has been found wanting at various junctures.<\/span>\n\nIf anything, Ambati Rayudu can take solace in the fact that there are countless hopefuls who would give anything to have had the experiences he did \u2013 four IPL titles, financial security, and a chance to represent the country. It might also help him to stop looking at success merely through the lens of a spot in a World Cup squad and throw away his remaining years in cricket. For a player who could have thrown in the towel years before, he chose to stay on and <\/span>fight <\/span><\/a>another battle.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nHe might not seem himself as a winner. But there are many that do.\u00a0<\/span>\n\n\u00a0\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A year ago, if anyone had told Ambati Rayudu that come the World Cup, he would be sitting at home, disgruntled, hurt, and announcing his retirement, he would have laughed. There are countless players like Rayudu whose sporting dreams remain just dreams, but each unfulfilled dream is different from the other.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":4948,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[394],"tags":[8567,449,555,1274],"class_list":["post-4945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-ambati-rayudu","tag-cricket","tag-retirement","tag-world-cup"],"yoast_head":"\nWas Ambati Rayudu Really Given a Raw Deal?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A year ago, if anyone had told Ambati Rayudu that come the World Cup, he would be sitting at home, disgruntled, hurt, and announcing his retirement, he would have laughed. 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