International sport is tough. Team sport even more so. You might be good, but there might not be a vacancy for you.
Then there are times when players lose form, or get found out.
The end result is some players who make an impressive start to their careers fade away for some reason or the other.
Since this is a season of spin, we take a look at five tweakers, who made a splash at the start, but whose career graphs later weren’t always pointing upwards.
Ajantha Mendis (Sri Lanka)
The wily spinner had everyone talking about his ‘carrom ball” when he took eight wickets on Test debut against India in Colombo. The former Army lad also represented Sri Lanka in the white-ball arena, but batsmen soon figured out the carrom ball. Mendis' last ODI appearance came in 2015 against New Zealand at the Hagley Oval. In 2019, he retired from the game. Mendis played 145 matches for Sri Lanka across formats and took 288 wickets. It was by no means a bad career, but a slightly different script was imagined for him when he made that sensational debut.
Steve O'Keefe (Australia)
Along with talent, the Malaysia-born left-arm spinner has had to show a lot of patience and resilience in his career. With Australia having so many options to try
out, O’Keefe has had to wait for his chances. He was drafted into the Test squad for the 2010 Pakistan series that was held in England. However, he did not play a single Test. Four long years later, O'Keefe played his debut game against Pakistan in Dubai, ending up on the losing side. However, his career got a boost during the Border-Gavaskar series in 2017. In the 1st Test in Pune, he took 12/70, the best figures by a visiting spinner in a Test in India. However, he has played only nine Tests and seven T20Is for Australia. He continues to play in the Big Bash League (BBL).
Michael Yardy (England)
English left-arm spinner Michael Yardy made his international debut in 2006 against Pakistan in a One-Day International. He seemed to be going at a good clip, scalping 21 ODI wickets and 11 T20I wickets. However, Yardy's career came to a stall abruptly when he flew home from Colombo three days before the quarterfinal of the 2011 World Cup, citing clinical depression. Yardy's last first-class game came in the year 2015.
Rahul Sharma (India)
Hailing from Punjab, the lanky leg-spinner made his first-class bow in 2006 against Rajasthan. After impressing on the domestic scene, he earned a lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) contract with the now-defunct Deccan Chargers in 2010. He also earned the India cap when he made his debut in 2011 in an ODI against West Indies. However, controversies soon followed. He tested positive for drugs after Pune police raided a rave party he was attending. He played in the IPL but as new talent came to the fore, Sharma faced a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
Arshad Khan (Pakistan)
Pakistan have produced some great spinners over the years and among those was Arshad Khan. Despite having a lanky posture, the Peshawar-born cricketer was an off-break bowler and had a very conventional bowling action as compared to his peers - Saqlain Mushtaq and Mushtaq Ahmed. Arshad's ODI debut came in 1993 vs Zimbabwe at Sharjah and four years later, he earned his Test cap. The offie was in and out of the side till 2001 and his last showing was against India in 2005 at Bangalore. Pakistan's new breed of spinners meant Arshad Khan's days were numbered.
