His ‘commitment questioned’, Bengal’s Laxmi Ratan Shukla calls it a day

“Needless to say, as I have invariably placed my cricketing principles and my team above everything else including my personal interests and achievements, I feel that moment has come when I should take a decision to selflessly step aside and make room for some young talent to replace me in the team,” Shukla wrote.

The tone of the press conference, however, was mellowed. “For the last one month I wasn’t getting the right motivation. Somehow I felt the link was broken. Mentally I was not up to it anymore,” he said a day before the Bengal team’s departure for Nagpur for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 tournament. The 34-year-old was among the 16 chosen for the event. Opener Abhishek Das will now replace

Shukla had his six-year-old son Agastya for company as he explained his decision at the Bagan ground – he will continue to play local cricket for his club.

His Bengal team-mates and CAB officials were conspicuous by their absence. “I was alone when I started playing cricket. I want to leave without getting anyone involved,” he said.

Shukla had a meeting with Ganguly, Bengal captain Manoj Tiwary and coach Sairaj Bahutule on Tuesday. According to him, all of them wanted him to stay after being informed about his decision. The senior pro, however, read the writing on the wall – that he has become isolated in a ‘united’ dressing room.

It started early in the season as Tiwary replaced Shukla as Bengal Ranji captain. The latter stepped down in the wake of reported locker room unrest during the team’s pre-season tour of Sri Lanka. Shukla played the Ranji opener against Karnataka but was ruled out for the next five matches due to a ligament tear.

He was fit for Bengal’s penultimate group league fixture but didn’t get the nod. Shukla, however, came back for the final group league game against Assam and then played the Vijay Hazare Trophy. But it became obvious that he was living on borrowed time.

He had an excellent first-class career with 6,217 runs (average 35.93, nine hundreds) and 172 wickets (average 34.75) from 137 matches.

In 141 List A games, he scored 2,997 runs and took 143 wickets. He also played three ODIs, at a very young age of 18. His talent was acknowledged after some very good performances in the Youth World Cup in South Africa in 1998.

But maybe, he was thrown in at the deep end a little too early.

Personally, he will always rue his non-inclusion in the playing XI in the 1999 Asian Test Championship fixture against Pakistan at his beloved Eden Gardens.

He was in the squad but then India captain Mohammad Azharuddin decided against picking an extra seamer despite having a green-top. Pakistan recovered from a precarious 26/6 in their first innings to win the match by 46 runs. Shukla was hugely disappointed.

However, he remained on the fringes and won the BCCI’s Lala Amarnath Award for the best all-rounder in domestic limited-overs cricket for the 2011-12 season.

Yet, a second national call-up remained elusive for the cricketer who wore his heart on his sleeve and sharply divided opinion.