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In his eight-year-long career as an international cricketer for India, S Sreesanth has staged several comebacks -- from injuries, suspensions and after getting dropped for modest performances. But now, he might just have reached a dead-end.

The arrest on Thursday in connection with the alleged spot-fixing, may have ended for ever his chances of making a comeback into the Indian squad. Even for those who know Sreesanth closely, his latest flirtation with damnation has come as a bit of a surprise.  But it is also an episode revealing the character of someone who found it tough to stick to his promises.

After making his return to first-class cricket in December after two toe surgeries, Sreesanth, in a chat, had expressed his strong desire to play as much cricket -- Tests in particular -- as possible for India. He was quite eloquent, and one sentence was significantly catchy.

“I have realised that life and cricket is not like a movie. They don’t have so many reels. This time, I won’t let down those people who supported me.” There still was a nagging suspicion about his ability to live up to those words because it was coming from Sreesanth.

Burning passion

However, it was thrilling to listen to a player talking with such burning passion about cricket and his career.

Finally then, Sreesanth has realised the value of his talent, and the importance of not wasting it, or one thought so. It would have been one immense season for the Kerala pacer with India set to embark on a clutch of away tours, starting with a trip to South Africa -- top-of-the-list country to tour by his own admission after his Johannesbourg exploits in 2008 -- in December this year. Then there are tours to New Zealand, England and Australia -- destinations that would favour his type of bowling.

However to begin his journey through that long road, Sreesanth had to keep the petulant child in him in check. The first sign of trouble came when he made a series of tweets that invoked the ghost of ‘Slapgate’, calling Harbhajan Singh a ‘back stabber.’

It was totally uncalled for because there was no serious provocation to stir a controversy when everything was falling in place for him to chart his comeback to the national side.

But then, as in many past instances, Sreesanth didn’t realise the magnitude of the chances in the offing, and those promises were, as it stands now, mere baloney.