Former Australian all-rounder Shane Watson on Tuesday announced retirement from all forms of cricket, ending a 20 year long illustrious career during which he was one of the world’s premier white-ball all-rounders. The Australian all-rounder had already ended his international career in March 2016 and had only been playing in overseas T20 leagues. “It all started out as a dream, as a young kid, saying to my mum as I watched a Test match as a fiveyear-old, ‘I wanna play cricket for Australia.’ And now as I officially announce my retirement from all cricket, I feel crazily lucky to have lived out my dream, and then some,” the all-rounder said on his YouTube channel T20 Stars. Watson confirmed that the IPL match between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on October 29 was his last game of cricket.
“It really does feel like the right time. Knowing that I’ve played my last game of cricket, ever, for my beloved CSK, who’ve been so incredibly good to me over the last three years,” said Watson. “To think that I’m finishing up my playing days as a 39-yearold after all of my injury setbacks that I’ve had along the way, I feel so ridiculously fortunate,” he added. On Monday, ANI had reported that the former Australian all-rounder will announce retirement from all forms of cricket after reaching Australia. Speaking to ANI, sources in the CSK team management said that Watson told the players and officials that he is hanging his boots and will make an official announcement once he is in Australia. “We had a word and he told us that he is going to officially call it a day once he lands in Australia. The official announcement will come once he has had a word with his family,” the source had said.
In his IPL stint, Watson has lifted two titles in 2008 (RR) and 2018 (CSK) and two players of the tournament awards (2008 and 2013). The 39-year-old played 145 games for three teams in the competition, scoring 3874 runs at a strike-rate of 137.91. He hit four centuries and also claimed a hat-trick amongst his 92 IPL wickets. This season the veteran allrounder played 11 games and scored 299 runs with two halfcenturies. Watson ended his test career in 2015 and quit international cricket this next year, surrendering in his battle against a litany of injuries that bedevilled his career. He quit Big Bash League last year but played this year’s Indian Premier League where his team Chennai Super Kings failed make t h e playoff. “It really does feel like the right time now that I’ve played my last game of cricket ever for my beloved CSK…” the popular blond said in a video on his YouTube channel. “To think that I’m finishing my playing days as a 39-year-old, after all of my injury setbacks that I had along the way, I feel so ridiculously fortunate,” said Watson who made 14 in his last outing against Kolkata Knight Riders on Thursday. For an injury-prone player, Watson played 59 tests, 190 one-dayers and 58 Twenty20 matches in his 14 years in international cricket.