South African great Hashim Amla retires from all forms of cricket

Hashim Amla, one of South Africa’s all-time greats, has confirmed to Surrey that he will not be returning to help them defend the County Championship title that the club secured in his final season as a player in 2022. He aggregated 9,282 runs - second only to Jacques Kallis' tally of 13,206 - at an average of 46.64 in 124 Tests. His unbeaten knock of 311, which came against England at The Oval in 2012, still remains the highest individual score by a South African.

Across formats, he had 18,672 runs for the country since making his international debut in 2014. Notably, no South African has more than his record of 27 ODI hundreds. Overall, he scored 34,104 runs in his illustrious two-decade-long professional career.

"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 in a statement, as reported by ESPNCricinfo. 

“A sincere thank you to Alec Stewart and the entire Surrey staff, players and Members for their support. The Surrey ship runs so professionally that it would make any international player feel a sense of honour just to be involved with. I wish them all the best and many more trophies.”

Amla averaged 49.46 in 181 ODIs and 33.60 in 44 T20Is, and with the retirement from all formats, his first-class career average stays at 48.55 with 19.521 runs.