PHOTO: REUTERS
England fast bowler Stuart Broad will retire from cricket at the end of the Ashes series against Australia, he said after the third day of the final Test on Saturday.
Broad, 37, is England’s second-highest Test-wicket taker with 602 victims in 167 matches, behind only his long-time team mate James Anderson who has 690.
“Tomorrow — well Monday — will be my last game of cricket,” Broad told Sky Sports.
“It’s been a wonderful ride, a huge privilege to wear the Nottinghamshire and the England badge as much as I have and I’m loving cricket as much as I ever have.”
It didn’t take long for the tributes and well wishes to flow in for Broad, who will retire with the fifth most wickets in Test history, after the pacer announced the final Ashes Test at The Oval would be his last.
“He’s an undeniably great cricketer for England — 167 games, 602 wickets, and that performance of 8-15 at Trent Bridge against Australia (in 2015) was the defining performance of his career,” said former England captain Michael Atherton.
“He’s got more Ashes wickets than anyone else in an England shirt, he himself says the Ashes brought the best out of him, and I think that’s why he’s made the decision to go here,” he added.
Australia great Glenn McGrath, a childhood hero of Broad’s, said Saturday that his fellow seamer’s ability to raise his game when most needed made him a “true champion”.
“He loves the big moments, he loves the pressure and that is the sign of a true champion,” McGrath, whose tally of 563 Test wickets was surpassed by Broad last year, told the BBC. “He has been incredible for England for a long, long time.”
“A great cricketer deserves to go out at the top…. I think the crowd here over the next couple of days would want to give him a send-off. He is the complete article. Fitness, hunger, skill, cleverness,” said former England skipper Nasser Hussain.
Former England captain and teammate Alastair Cook said: “I’m a bit emotional and a bit surprised…. The one player to deliver, alongside Ben Stokes, in the big moments is Stuart Broad. And what a feeling that must be for a player.”
“Stuart Broad is quite simply one of England’s all-time greats. One of the game’s fiercest competitors, it is fitting that he should choose to retire from the game at the culmination of such a closely contested and exciting Ashes series,” said Richard Gould, England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive
Australia off-spinner Todd Murphy said: “What you admire about a guy like that is that he charges in no matter what the conditions are and he fights all day and I think that’s all you can ask from a cricketer and his record is unbelievable. He’s had a hell of a career”
