Younis Khan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Kevin Pietersen and other cricketers who refuse to retire

On Friday, Pakistani batsman Younis Khan revealed his desire to finish his Test career with 10,000 runs - a feat never achieved by any Pakistani batsman before.

The trouble with this claim is two-fold - Khan is 37 and remains dropped from the ODI side - and he is still 1186 runs away from reaching 10,000 Test runs. Though he has endured a good run of form in Test cricket, he has issues with players in his side and has been making inane comments of late. In a nutshell, there is little chance of Younis Khan achieving his 10,000-run dream. But he has explicitly said he would not retire before Pakistan win in Australia and England!

Unfortunately, Khan is not the only player who has been hanging around in spite of being given indications that he is no longer wanted. The list includes several high profile batsmen as well as bowlers, some of them Indians.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul: The Windies left hander was left out of the Test squad for the series against Australia in June. At 41 years, suffering from an extended streak of poor form, it does not look likely that Chanderpaul will ever return to the Windies fold. However, he has refused to retire. After an acrimonious Whatsapp exchange with coach Phil Simmons, Chanderpaul announced that he would not retire until the end of 2015. Interestingly, he is only 87 runs short of Brian Lara's Test aggregate of 11,953 runs. Does that ring a bell?

Misbah ul Haq: Misbah is 41, bats at a slow pace in ODIs and has been criticised for his captaincy. He is yet to score an ODI century. But he retains not only his place in the Pakistani side but also held the captaincy until the World Cup. He justified his place in the World Cup squad, scoring 350 runs even as a weak Pakistani team had a mediocre outing. Perhaps he is only there because the others seem to fare far worse.

Virender Sehwag: Virender Sehwag was once a maverick and an extraordinary Indian opening batsman in Test cricket who revolutionised the opening position. He has already attained legendary status in the cricketing world. However, a prolonged period of poor form beginning 2012 saw him dropped from both the ODI and Test teams by 2014.

His hopes of a return are very slim, and this was confirmed when he was left out of the World Cup squad. The change in the BCCI top guard in 2015 also did not see his return to the side. But the man from Najafgarh continues to soldier on, holding out for one more chance in the national jersey. Recently, he moved from the Delhi Ranji Trophy team to play for Haryana.

Yuvraj Singh: Yuvraj Singh was another product of the Sourav Ganguly era in Indian cricket. A precocious talent, Yuvraj found consistency only after Greg Chappell became the coach, learning to 'play in the V'. He turned into an excellent ODI middle order batsman and once became famous for hitting six sixes off a Stuart Broad over - at the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup. Aside from this achievement, Yuvraj was the man of the series in India's 2011 World Cup triumph.

But a cancer diagnosis following the World Cup derailed Yuvraj's career. Though he recovered and was brought back into the Indian team, Yuvraj never found the glory of old and was finally dropped in 2014 after scoring a painful 11 off 21 balls in India's loss to Sri Lanka in the World Twenty20 final. He also did not find a place in the World Cup squad. But Yuvraj Singh is yet to hang up his boots. He joined the Delhi Daredevils side in IPL 8 at a massive price of Rs 16 crores, but failed to justify his price tag.

Harbhajan Singh: Harbhajan Singh was out of the Indian side for a long time before being recalled this year. He was dropped following the Test series at home against Australia in 2013, and only returned for the Tests against Bangladesh in June this year. Since then, he has figures of 3/64, 0/11, 0/17 and 1/73. These figures are hardly inspiring, and his bowling average since 2006 has been 37. Even at home, Bhajji averages a modest 35. 

The Turbanator shot to fame with a 32-wicket series against Australia in 2001, but has never been able to repeat anything remotely similar. In spite of this, he continues to play international cricket, and a recall following the end of the N Srinivasan era suggests more than just meets the eye.

Zaheer Khan: Zaheer Khan was, for at least half a decade, India's best pace bowler. From the mid-2000s to the 2011 World Cup, he was the cornerstone of India's bowling attack and  while he did not run through opposition, was famed for taking wickets at crucial stages of the game. Now 37, Khan has been out of the side for a year after averaging in the 40s for three straight years. There are no signs that he will ever return - the advent of Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammad Shami attests to that. Khan was even left out of the 2015 World Cup squad, but has not announced his retirement.

Brad Haddin: Unlike most Australian cricketers, Brad Haddin does not seem to prefer walking into the sunset once the writing is on the wall. Haddin had been a regular in the Australian Test side since 2008. Following the 1st Ashes Test in Cardiff in July 2015, Haddin declared himself unavailable for the second due to family reasons. But he was not picked for the remaining 3 Tests. While any other Australian would find it impossible to make a comeback at the age of 37, there have been no indications that Haddin will retire.

Kevin Pietersen: And now the big fish. Kevin Pietersen is a fantastic batsman. His axing from the England squad was more because of his problems in the dressing room and with the England and Wales Cricket Board than his performance.  

After being axed following the 2013-14 Ashes series, Pietersen immediately did the worst thing an active cricketer could do - he penned a book slamming the ECB, Andy Flower, the English cricket system and many of his teammates. Bizarrely, he still expects a recall to the English team and flew into a rage when he was not included in the Ashes squad this year. There was some hope among his fans that a poor Ashes series would result in Pietersen's return to the side. With England beating Australia to regain the urn, though, it might be advisable for Pietersen to call it a day. 

It is interesting to note that many players in this list belong to the subcontinent. But there are other examples one can look up to - Kumar Sangakkara, Rahul Dravid, Mahela Jayawardene, VVS Laxman - who retired before being considered a liability in the side. It would therefore be wise for these players to follow in their footsteps. Think about a certain Sachin Tendulkar who caused irredeemable harm to his reputation by hanging on for over two years after his last run of significant form.