IPL 2019 | Shane Watson to retire from Big Bash League

Shane Watson, the skipper of Sydney Thunders, has decided to retire from Big Bash League. However, this does not mean that the Chennai Super Kings player will stop playing in the Indian Premier League and Pakistan Super League among other franchise based tournaments around the world. The 37-year-old, who got married in 2010 and has two children, has taken this decision in order to spend time with his family during the summer vacations. The Big Bash League takes place during the peak of Australian summer, from December to January, which leaves the former Australian player with little time to spend with his family. The announcement came from Cricket Australia CEO Kevin Roberts, who was all praise for the all-rounder.

"Shane Watson was one of the most exciting short-form players ever to grace a cricket field. 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,” he said, reported Cricbuzz.

The hard hitting all-rounder had made a start to his domestic career in 2000 and went on to debut for Australia in 2002. He played his last ODI and Test in 2015, before announcing retirement from the shortest in March 2016. He still continued with his captaincy stint at the Sydney based franchise and ended his career in the eight team tournament with 1058 runs and 20 wickets in 42 matches. Roberts did not fail to acknowledge his contribution to Australian cricket over the years.

"In a career which spanned almost two decades Shane made a major contribution to Australian cricket firstly at international level and then in domestic cricket as a significant contributor to the Big Bash. His greatest quality was persistence, overcoming a number of sometimes serious injuries and curtailing his pace. He became a probing swing and seam bowler,” he expressed.

"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. He is also the only Sydney Thunder batsman to score more than a 1000 runs. He is Australia's most successful Test and One-Day batting all-rounder after Steve Waugh. No other Australians combined as many runs and wickets in either format."

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