Hockey India has retired the jersey number of Indian hockey veteran Sreejesh. Earlier, Sreejesh had said goodbye to the hockey team after playing an important role in getting the country its second consecutive Olympic bronze medal in the Paris Games. You must have noticed that whether it is cricket or any other game, in every game a number is written on the back of the players’ jersey and the jerseys of some players are retired. Like in cricket, the jersey numbers of Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni were retired.
In such a situation, the question is how do the players get this jersey number, can any player take the jersey number of his choice or is there any rule for this. Apart from this, what is the meaning of retiring some jersey numbers and why are jersey numbers retired…
How do you get a jersey number?
Although every player can choose his jersey number as per his wish, but for this the player has to fulfill some conditions, after which the number is allotted to him. One condition is that the number chosen by the player should not be with any other player of the team. ICC gives every new player a chance to choose a number between 1 to 100.
But, that number should not be with the regular members of the team or with the players who are out of the team but are still active. If a player retires, then that number becomes available for another player. But, you cannot take the number of an active player. Also, you cannot take a retired number.
What does it mean to retire?
If we talk about retirement, many times the National Federation does this to give special respect to a senior player. In this sequence, their jersey number is retired. That is, a jersey number is given in the name of any legendary player, which means that no one can ever take that jersey number again. Like Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s jersey number was 7, which was later retired.
This means that now no Indian cricketer can ever wear jersey number 7. Similarly, Sachin Tendulkar’s jersey number 10 has also been retired, due to which no player can wear jersey number 7, 10 etc. from 1 to 100. Now Sreejesh’s jersey number 16 has been retired, which means that now no hockey player will be able to wear jersey number 16.
Yashasvi Jaiswal had to change his number
When cricketer Yashasvi Jaiswal made his debut, he was very keen to wear jersey number 19. He used to play with the same jersey number for Rajasthan Royals before this. But, he did not get jersey number 19. The reason for this was that earlier Dinesh Karthik had jersey number 19 and he was part of the team. After this Jaiswal got jersey number 64. When Shubman Gill came, he wanted jersey number 7, but because of Dhoni’s jersey, he took jersey number 77.
There is culture abroad too
No one takes footballer Diego Maradona’s jersey number 10 and basketball player Michael Jordan’s jersey number 23.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)