Watson retires from Aussie cricket

SYDNEY: Shane Watson, the former Australia all-rounder, who retired from international cricket in 2016, called time on his Big Bash League career on Friday.

Watson captained Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League, and continued playing for them after his international retirement. However, he has now decided to end his BBL career to spend more time with his family during the summer. Watson will, however, continue playing for Sutherland DCC in NSW Premier Cricket and in select overseas tournaments, according to cricket.com.au.

“I want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart who has been involved with the Sydney Thunder over the last four seasons,” Watson said. “I have so many amazing memories that I will savour forever with the one standout being our win in 2016. I want to especially thank Nick Cummins, Paddy Upton, Lee Germon and Shane Bond who made my experience with the club so enjoyable.

“Finally, to my teammates, I have played with so many great people and cricketers at the club and I sincerely wish everyone the absolute best for the upcoming seasons.”

The 37-year-old enjoyed a prolific international career, representing his country in 190 One-Day Internationals, 59 Tests and 58 Twenty20 Internationals before retiring. His last international match was in the quarter-final of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2016 against India.

Watson has continued to achieve success in T20 Leagues after his international retirement. Recently, he narrowly missed out on a century for Chennai Super Kings, whom he represents in the Indian Premier League.

In the 2018-19 Pakistan Super League, he was the leading run-scorer with 430 runs from 12 innings at 43, including scores of 61, 71, 81 not and 91 not out. In the 2018-19 BBL, he was Sydney Thunder’s second-highest scorer with 344 runs from 14 innings.

“Shane Watson was one of the most exciting short form players ever to grace a cricket field,” said Kevin Roberts, Cricket Australia’s chief executive.

“Talented, skillful and powerful, Shane was a devastating batsman at his best. It was only a few months ago he scored a century from just 62 balls for the Thunder against the Brisbane Heat at the Gabba.”

Watson hasn’t bowled much in recent times, but he used to be a more-than-handy option in his prime, picking 291 international wickets.

“His greatest quality was persistence, overcoming a number of sometimes serious injuries and curtailing his pace,” said Roberts. “He became a probing swing and seam bowler.

“Despite these injuries Shane played a remarkable amount of cricket, representing Australia in 307 matches across all formats and playing more than 700 matches of international and domestic cricket in total, scoring more than 25,000 runs and claiming over 600 wickets.”

In terms of all-round figures for Australia in Tests and ODIs, Watson was second only to the former captain Steve Waugh. In Tests, he scored 3731 runs and picked up 75 wickets, and accumulated 5757 runs in ODIs and took 168 wickets.