India, Jan. 9 -- Like every professional sportsperson, Mohammed Shami has had his fair share of setbacks. Exigencies of form (infrequent), fitness and injuries have kept him out of the national team for large chunks of his international career, now into its 13th year. Off the field, he has been dogged by marital discord that has made its way to public domain, he has been involved in a car accident.

At 35, the man from Amroha who made the move to Kolkata aged 15 at the insistence of his Moradabad coach Badruddin Siddique to further his cricketing ambitions is clearly much closer to the end of his competitive career than its beginning. And unless something dramatic transpires in the near future, he might well have played his last game for ...