Kevin Pietersen to retire from cricket by the end of the year
Kevin Pietersen has announced that the current Big Bash League will be his last season in the league where he plays for Melbourne Stars by stating that he is coming to the end of his career. The English player has also confirmed that he will not sign the contract for the next year.
After losing the game against Renegades by six wickets at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the 37-year-old cricketer revealed that this will be his last season of the BBL. He scored 40 runs in just 30 balls and after the clash, he hinted that his playing career will be over by the end of this year.
“I am definitely coming to the end of my playing time,” Pietersen was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
“So I am definitely going to enjoy the last few digs. It’s fairly close. It’s the practice that you look at and you just think, ‘do I want to do it?’ I’ve still got the energy at the moment but it’s dwindling.”
Pietersen played 104 Tests and 136 ODIs for England scoring 8181 and 4440 runs respectively. He also featured in 37 T20I in which he scored 1176 runs at an average of 37.93 including seven half-centuries. Pietersen is England's second highest run-scorer in all formats of the game combined, but he was not able to break into the side following a dispute with Andrew Strauss in 2014. However, he continued to play cricket in domestic T20 leagues around the world and is also working as a TV commentator for different leagues including the IPL.
He was part of the Melbourne Stars for three seasons of BBL and till now featured in three games in his fourth season. For Melbourne Stars, he scored 998 runs in 29 innings at the strike rate of 135.97 including nine half-centuries. On Saturday, during his 40-run innings was hit on the ankle despite that the right-hand batsman continued batting but he failed to return to the ground in the Renegades innings.
“I’m coming to the end of my career,” he said.
“My career is not going to be defined on how I play in the Big Bash. My career has already been defined by all my ups and downs through a long career. It’s my job to come here and help others, help the youngsters, be a good influence, be a positive influence on the team. That’s what I’ve done for three or four years.”
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