A lot of girls find their crushes at school, on TV shows and in the movies.

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Well, I went to an all-girl school. I did like the odd actor in the movies (*cough* Colin Firth *cough*), but that was about it.

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But I had another source for ultimate crushiness: international cricketers.

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I suppose a lot of girls like sportsmen, but only girls in the British Commonwealth would know who these cricketers are: South Africa’s Shaun Pollock and New Zealand’s Stephen Fleming. I mention them because both of them recently retired from international cricket.

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It represents an end of an era for their cricket teams, because they were influential cricketers.

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It represents an end of an era for me too, because it’s officially the end of that phase of my life when I could tell you pretty much everything about those two cricket teams. In a larger sense, it closes the door on that era of my India-based life, mindset and interests. My interests and inclinations are all US-based now. Seems about right, seeing as how I’ve live here for so long.

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When I moved here five years ago, I knew a fair bit about cricket teams, which players were picked, why, the future of those teams and so on. With each passing year I’ve been here, that interest and knowledge has waned, not just because I’m far away from the action, but also because the players I watched started retiring and new ones came on to the scene.

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Most of my friends in high school thought that Shaun Pollock was ugly as sin (ironic, because he’s a born-again Christian). In fact, Pollock is not considered particularly attractive by ANYONE; even one of South Africa’s best known sports reporters went so far as to call him “not sexy.”

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NZ’s Fleming has been called “Everybody’s Mum’s Favorite Black Cap.” I don’t know if my mother would like him, but I sure did. He was as good a tactician as he was (is?) good looking.

It’s interesting to see the footage of these guys’ retirements, see the wife and children in the background and think back to the time when they were still young, in their 20s with the world (and figuratively, women) at their feet. And now, it’s all over.

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Over for them, and in a much smaller way, over for me.

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Additional:

Pollock’s retirement speech.

Fleming’s retirement speech.