This happens in every sport as time marches on. There always seems to be new names popping up in the State of Origin teams.
It happens to the multi-million dollar sports too – such as motor racing and yachting, new names in golf and tennis are bought before the public.
Coaches too. The English Premier League is a classic case of coaches getting their marching orders. The public thrives on this kind of news.
It is part and parcel of life in Sport, the corporate world, big business, churches, hospital executives, the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Treasury Department, the Tax Office and everywhere in between gets a new head from time to time.
Welcome to life…
But have you ever thought of the trauma and heartache of such people who have got the chop – so to speak – to coin a phrase – who are now facing a whole new future.
This is part of the role that the ministry "Life After Cricket" plays in that many a cricketer has found that their life and existence and self-worth and value was bound up within the cricket fraternity.
In my doctoral dissertation over thirty years ago, I cited numerous US athletes' experiences of the inner cry of the heart as they faced what they considered to be national humiliation by losing their contract.
It affects different people in different ways. For some it's seen as a golden opportunity to launch out in another direction for their lives, like a great adventure. It was a great ride while it lasted, but now there's a whole new world out there and here I come…
For others, it's total and irretrievable disaster. Sport suicide is not uncommon in the western world. International cricketers, according to cricket writer David Frith in his book "By their own hand" have the highest suicide rate of all international athletes.
Others reaction is not quite so drastic. Some go into their shell and fall into depression. Still some have not seriously considered their future outside Sport and in reality, have nowhere to go.
Basil Sellers AM, a patron of the arts commissioned me to paint a trilogy on Sport Anguish and these three large paintings now hang in his Sydney home. Basil Sellers said that he elaborates to his visitors these philosophical moods of the art, Anguish, Confusion and Hope. These can be viewed on-line here.
Every Christian involved in sport at any level can be personally involved in ministry whenever someone is given the bad news, which inevitably comes to everyone, that their presence in their current team is no longer required.
Having a comforting word, being a friend, acknowledging the loss and grief, yet providing a positive alternative can make a whole lot of difference. It might even lead to some life changing decisions about their life's direction.