The first time I heard of the term ‘pulls no punches’, it was mentioned in relation to that eternal fighter, Javed Miandad of Pakistan. One can say the same for Laxman Sivaramakrishnan — now, more than ever. The former India leg-spinner has always been outspoken, but what he said a few weeks ago after his, “I am retiring from commentary for BCCI” X (formerly Twitter) post, was a river of flowing emotions. Siva, or LS as he is referred to by friends, spoke about how he has been discriminated against when it has come to commentary assignments. I had suspected he decided to shoot from the lip once he discovered that he was not among the commentators for this year’s Indian Premier League, but he cleared the air on that. He also indicated that he missed out on coaching opportunities.

The last time we met — at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in September 2024 — when he was commentating on a Duleep Trophy game, he mentioned in passing how he had played his last Test (vs Australia at Sydney in January 1986) at 20 and his final ODI before turning 22. Come to think of it, that’s no age to be done with international cricket.