The theatre named Sree

On the field, S Sreesanth never left anything in the tank.

A heart full of competitive spirit and jest, he laid bare the very reason he started playing the sport and in the process, gave India many moments of glories, uncertainties, frustrations, and moments of pure joy - all in equal measure.

Much before Bumrah and Shami burst onto the scene as the flag-bearer of Indian pace bowling, it was Sreesanth who succeeded to keep the troupe alive in alien conditions. The hope he generated, the adulation he brought about, the fire he managed to bring to the table or even the celebration - for a generation rising with a mediocre set of pace bowlers, Sreesanth was truly bliss. A picture-perfect breakdancer, making his own rhythm, with an upright seam position. Those were pure scenes.

The epilogue didn’t come in the sweetest way possible but a two-time World Cup winner, Sreesanth knew what it took to be good at the craft of pace-bowling, with a zeal to portray himself as one of the best in the business. The ending seemed way too far off but a formal announcement on Wednesday just drove home the point of how far Indian cricket have detached itself from the Sreesanth affair.

In hindsight, however, things seem rather murkier or clearer, depending on which side of the schism you stand. For someone like me, whose growing up years coincided with the rise of S Sreesanth in the Indian cricketing milieu, it is sad and downright improbable to digest that it ended in such an anticlimatic matter. 

Sure the ending was almost over a decade in the making, but the 2005 Challenger Trophy, in which he carted Sachin Tendulkar’s stumps for a motion of its own, still seems like yesterday. It would be impossible to forget the theatre of Ramnaresh Sarwan and Brian Lara’s dismissal in the Antigua Test of 2006 or leading India to a historic win at the Sabina Park in Jamaica in the following game. No Sreesanth story would be complete without his heroics in South Africa and the dance thus after but it has been repeated so many times to be mentioned here once again. Sreesanth was capable of making the world his oyster. And unlike many what-could-have-been stories in the sport, he did that from time to time as well.

With Sreesanth, there was no equanimity. Even a composed leader like MS Dhoni had lost his patience with the Keralite but admitted the X-factor the pacer brought to the table. It was on the back of that hope Dhoni played Sreesanth in the 2011 World Cup final, despite knowing the decision could backfire massively. It didn’t work out and India had a certain Zaheer Khan to thank for bailing them out, but that showed the massive positive potential the then 28-year-old held in the Indian imagination. Sreesanth was the real prototype of his own. An original.

His career was a perfect rollercoaster. An imaginative wave of lyrical beauty, one could never have enough of the drama he provided off the field. It all culminated in a squander when he was caught in the 2013 IPL Fixing scandal and his life could never really take off from that. There have been multiple opinions and facts, with Sreesanth bringing his own version after being released from jail but the jury was never in doubt.

That phase of being banned from the sport to his return to the Kerala squad was a long one and he fiddled with multiple career options. He tried his hand in politics and movies, failed in both, but was undented in his ambition of making a comeback to the national set-up. When he returned to the Syed Mushtaq Ali squad for Kerala a couple of years ago, hopes of an IPL comeback was never too far but if one has followed the Indian cricket powers long enough, you would understand the impact his past deed has already had on him. 

But the lid had the firepower to brighten the house and for everything in between, it was a majestic stroke of a talented cricketer who could never stop brimming. Like his theatrics on the cricket field, Sreesanth hasn’t left anything in the tank. May that be his legacy.