Edgbaston, June 30: Tired of battling poor form and a nagging knee injury, England’s most successful Test captain Michael Vaughan today announced his retirement
from all forms of professional cricket with immediate effect.
“After a great deal of consideration, I’ve decided that now is the right time to retire from cricket,” the 34-year-old Yorkshire batsman said in a statement.
Vaughan departs leaving a rich legacy, having won 26 of the 51 Test matches he was in charge of. His achievements include leading England to their first Ashes victory against Australia in 18 years in 2005, something he described as the defining moment of his captaincy.
“I’d like to wish Andrew Strauss and the current England team success in this Ashes series. I know they have the drive, ambition and abilities to repeat the success from 2005. Winning that series was most definitely the highpoint of my career,” said Vaughan, whose exit was just a matter of time after the right-hander was excluded from England’s pre-Ashes squad.
Vaughan said time was ripe to leave the scene and pave way for the youngsters.
“It has been an enormous privilege to have played for and captained my country and this is one of the hardest decisions I have had to make.”
“Having played almost non-stop for sixteen seasons, I feel that the time is right for the focus to shift to the next generation,” Vaughan said.
“We have some fantastic talent coming through the English counties and, with the next Ashes series upon us, now is the time for the younger players to rise to the challenge of building on the success achieved in English cricket in the last few years,” he added.
As captain, Vaughan also led England to their first Test series win in South Africa in 40 years – also in 2005 – besides presiding over the team’s eight consecutive Test wins in 2004.
He also played 86 one dayers, leading the side in 60 of those matches.
As a batsman, Vaughan scored 18 Test hundreds for England following his 1999 debut and was ranked the number one batsman in the world following the 2002-03 Ashes Series in Australia in which he made 633 runs including three centuries.
Overall, he scored 5,719 runs in 82 Tests at an average of 41.44 with 18 hundreds and a best of 197 against India at Trent Bridge in 2002.
Vaughan’s one-day record, however, was less than impressive as he managed 1982 runs in 86 ODIs at an average of 27.15 with a highest score of 90 not out.
–Agencies–