Whilst it is always difficult to see good sportsmen (and women) coming to the end of their career in the highest grades of their chosen sport, there should also be some thought given to the advantages of making room for new blood to come in, at the lower ranks.
Leaving the onus on selectors is no way to determine the end of a first class career ..... some obvious biases have surfaced in the past, all to the detriment of the potential future stars of sport.
Cricket and AFL are two sports that need to have an age cap in the first class game ..... say 36 for cricket and 30 for AFL.
Now that will raise some heckles, but for the good of both games, it should be done, as the benefits are quite obvious ........ for example:
If you have played in first class cricket from 20 years of age ..... you know you have 16 years to get the most out of the game and have something planned for retirement.
This also allows new talent to be filtered through in a continuous stream, thereby maintaining a high standard at all times.
Leaving retirement decisions to selectors is not the answer.
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Likewise in AFL ..... to maintain the best playing standard and fitness level, a constant stream of new blood needs to be encouraged to enter the game.
By having a mandatory cap on age, then the tempatation to leave ailing players on the field, so that they can make it past milestone matches played, is avoided.
We have a quite a high standard of team fitness, moral and playing skills ..... let's keep it that way, by eliminating those, that are past their "use by" date.
