England Test captain Andrew Strauss said his “race was run” as he annnounced his retirement from all professional cricket with immediate effect on Wednesday.
And he insisted his decision to quit had nothing to do with the fall-out from the ongoing England exile of star batsman Kevin Pietersen.
“After much thought over the last few weeks, I have decided to step down as England Test captain and announce my retirement from all forms of cricket,” Strauss said in an England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) statement issued ahead of a news conference at Lord’s.
“It has clearly been a tough decision to make, but I believe that it is both in the best interests of the England cricket team and myself to step down at this stage,” the 35-year-old, who played exactly 100 Tests, added.
“The driver to all this is I haven’t batted well enough for a long time,” Strauss later told the news conference. “I wasn’t going to improve batting-wise, I’ve run my race. “It’s one of these decisions when you know when your time is up.”
Amla keen to keep running riot
Hashim Amla looked forward to returning to the scene of his greatest triumph after punishing England with yet another superb century. Amla’s brilliant 150 was the centrepiece of the Proteas 80 run-win in the second one-day international at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton on Tuesday as they went 1-0 up in the five-match series following last week’s washout in Cardiff.
Victory, sealed with more than nine overs to spare as England were bowled out for 207 in reply to 287 for five, left South Africa top of the standings in all three international formats.
It also meant the Proteas had knocked England off the summit of both the Test and 50-over standings in a matter of weeks. Now the one-day series heads to The Oval where last month Amla became the first South Africa batsmen to score a Test triple century with his 311 not out setting up an innings victory that sent the tourists on the way to a 2-0 win in a three-match series. “I think we are all looking forward to it,” man-of-the-match Amla said of his side’s return to the south London ground. “We have some good memories of the place. Different game, different ball so we’ll see what happens.”
In Southampton, Amla was twice dropped by England’s South Africa-born wicket-keeper Craig Kieswetter, on 42 and 92, and although neither chance was easy they were both ones glovemen at this level would expect to hold.
A slow pitch renowned for taking spin proved no problem to Amla during a 124-ball innings featuring 16 fours that saw him become the fastest player to 3,000 one-day international runs, taking 57 innings to reach the landmark compared to the 69 innings of West Indies great Vivian Richards
“It definitely felt like one of my better ones (innings),” said Amla. “I think what makes it special to me is it was a difficult wicket. We won the game too, you always want to score runs in a winning cause.”
The 29-year-old Amla, who opens in one-dayers and bats at first-wicket down in Tests, said the recent change to having a separate ball at each end of a one-day innings had made his career-best ODI effort especially pleasing. “With the two new white balls up front, it’s a lot more challenging.”
Meanwhile, South Africa one-day captain AB de Villiers, while pleased by his side’s rise to number one in the rankings, said the key aim in 50-over cricket was to win a major trophy. “It’s a great achievement but it’s not something that is one of our main goals,” the wicket-keeper batsman explained.
Strauss has enjoyed modest returns with the bat in recent years and his 122 against the West Indies in May was his first Test century since November 2010.
He followed up with another century, at Trent Bridge, but averaged just 17.83 in six innings against the South Africans.
Alastair Cook, already England’s one-day captain and Strauss’s opening partner in the five-day game, was announced as the new skipper of the Test team.
England dropped Pietersen, who hasn’t played international cricket in any format since making 149 in the drawn second Test at Headingley, after he admitted sending “provocative” texts to South African players.
Some of these were alleged to have been critical of Strauss, who succeeded South Africa-born and raised Pietersen as England captain in 2009.
But Strauss said he’d spoken to England coach Andy Flower about retiring “before the Kevin Pietersen situation reared its head”.
Strauss’s last Test was a 51-run defeat by South Africa at Lord’s, his Middlesex home ground where he made his Test debut in 2004, earlier this month that saw England surrender their number one Test ranking to the Proteas.
Strauss scored 21 hundreds — one shy of England’s all-time record — and led England to the top of the world Test rankings, a run that included home and away Ashes wins in 2009 and 2010/11.
Cook’s first Test as captain will be the first of a four-match series in India in November.
The 27-year-old, who replaced Strauss as one-day captain after last year’s World Cup, paid tribute by saying: “He has been a fantastic captain, has led from the front for three-and-a-half years and is a true ambassador for the game.
“I know this can’t have been an easy decision for him and everyone in the dressing room will be sad to see him go.
“I’m very excited by this new challenge, it is a huge honour to be appointed Test captain.”
Tests: 100 178 6 7,037 177 40.91 48.91 21 27 121
ODIs: 127 126 8 4,205 158 35.63 80.94 6 27 57
T20s: 4 4 0 73 33 18.25 114.06 0 0 1