 English all-round cricketer Andrew Flintoff has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. He made his announcement yesterday in a press release.
Flintoff had not played cricket since the Ashes Test match of Oval in
2009, and was trying to recuperate from his injuries. His decision to retire
comes because of his issues with injuries which have haunted him throughout
his career. Earlier, Flintoff had retired from the Test match format of the
game and had decided not to take up the English contract for the ODIs and the
T20Is. instead, Flintoff had decided to go freelance and play in all the T20
leagues around the world.
However, ever since that decision, Flintoff's injuries have only increased
manifold. He also had a contract with the Chennai Super Kings, for a
period of two years, 2009 and 2010, but after playing four games in 2009, he
could feature for them. Chennai's contract with Flintoff was for $1.55 million,
which was the costliest ever along with Kevin Pietersen.
Speaking to the media, Flintoff said that he was both, disappointed and sad
to have ended his career in this manner. Flintoff also said that the decision
was taken after consultation with his doctors and surgeons who said that if
he wanted to play cricket, he had to undergo another surgery and go through
the process of rehabilitation. He added, "I was told that the problems
I have been trying to overcome in re-hab for the last year following the latest
in a series of operations would not recover sufficiently to allow a comeback."
He also said that he was told that his body could no longer take the rigors
of cricket and hence had to take that hard call. Flintoff also thanked his family,
Lancashire Cricket Club, England, his sponsors, friends and advisers
apart from the fans who followed his game.
Flintoff also said that he would take his time to decide what he was going
to do in the future, despite rumours that he may join the commentators' box.
Flintoff played in 79 Test matches and in 141 ODIs. He was an all-rounder and
his averages in batting and bowing in Test matches was around 32. He scored
almost 4000 Test match runs an scalped 226 wickets, whereas in the ODI version
of the game, he scored 3400 runs and took 169 wickets. His economy in the ODIs
was 4.39 and he was a difficult bowler to play against.
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