Lehmann faces up to age-old problem

Darren Lehmann: 'I'm 33 and I'm not getting younger' © Getty Images

Not so long ago, it wasn't unusual to find international cricketers still playing as they neared 40, and in several instances well into their forties. Less than a decade ago, Graham Gooch was still England's No. 1 opener at the age of 41, and last month Alec Stewart played his last match as England's first-choice keeper at 40.

But top-flight cricket is increasingly seen as a young man's game - well, at least it is by selectors. Whereas the early thirties used to be viewed as being near a player's peak (often later for spin bowlers), now they are almost on the scrapheap when they turn 30.

Against that backdrop, Darren Lehmann admitted to reporters that he feared that by missing the second Test against Zimbabwe and the forthcoming one-day series in India because of an Achilles tendon injury, he might be considered too old to persevere with by the selectors. Lehmann is 33.

He had hoped to play in the Test - he admitted that he was not up to the demands of a one-day match - before an MRI scan revealed that he had a tear in the tendon that he risked rupturing were he to put any stress on it. "As the doctor said, if it did rupture that is probably it," Lehmann shrugged. "No play again." He now faces six weeks in a plastic boot and an enforced lay-off until the end of November.

It is perhaps ironic for a man with no reputation as a keep-fit fanatic that Lehmann's injury came not on the cricket field but on the running track. "I just had too much exercise for my frame," he admitted. "I should've stayed how I was for the last 15 years instead of doing the right thing for a change." The pressure to maintain fitness increases with each birthday.

Lehmann's form of late has been excellent, with three centuries in his last six Tests, but he is aware that the vultures are circling in the form of talented - and crucially younger - batsmen. Martin Love, who was dropped recently following the return of Damien Martyn, is 29 and highly rated. Michael Clarke is 22 and ever more highly regarded. Lehmann is a worried man. "Yeah, you would be, too," he said. "I'm 33 and I'm not getting younger."

All Lehmann can do is hobble round and wait. If one of his replacements plays well, then it will be increasingly hard for him to force his way back into the side, especially when the team contains Steve Waugh, another geriatric who is subjected to endless questions about his age and appetite for the game as if anyone over 35 had no right to be walking, let alone playing sport.

"Obviously things had been going really well over the last two years and now it's back to square one," Lehmann said. The reality is that it could be worse than just being back to square one.