One of South Africa’s best batsmen, Hashim Amla, has declared his retirement from all forms of cricket after telling Surrey he wouldn’t be coming back to assist the club defend the County Championship it won in his final season as a player in 2022. Amla, 39, amassed 34,104 runs over the course of a two-decade career in all professional formats, 9,282 of which came in 124 Test matches between 2004 and 2019, second only to Jacques Kallis for his nation. This included 28 hundreds and a best of 311 not out against England at the Kia Oval in 2012, which was also South Africa’s first triplecentury in Test matches.
He also scored 1,277 runs in 44 T20Is and another 8113 runs, including 27 hundreds, in 181 ODIs. He has also started a teaching career and served as MI Cape Town’s batting coach in the current SA20. According to the country’s new coaching system, he may be a candidate to lead South Africa’s batting squad. After bowing out of the Test match against Sri Lanka at Gqeberha in February of that year, Amla announced his retirement from international cricket after the conclusion of South Africa’s World Cup campaign. Later that year, after playing for Derbyshire, Hampshire, Nottinghamshire, and Essex for a while, he returned to Surrey after also playing for the county as an international in 2013 and 2014.
In addition, he played for Cape Cobras, Kwa-Zulu Natal, and Dolphins in South Africa’s domestic leagues, as well as Kings XI Punjab in the IPL. Even in the latter stages of his career, Amla’s influence could be felt during his final two seasons at Surrey, where he contributed five more centuries, with his best score coming against Hampshire in 2021 at 215 not out. Amla also served as a senior member of the team’s dressing room and was a vital support for captain Rory Burns. “I have great memories of the Oval ground and to finally leave it as a player fills me with immense gratitude for what has been,” Amla said.