- Tuesday, April 23, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA off-spinner Harbhajan Singh on Friday (24) quit all forms of cricket and said he had been contemplating retirement for some time and made up his mind to take the call during this year’s Indian Premier League.
Singh, who is fondly called ‘Turbanator’, announced his retirement in a social media post earlier in the day in which he thanked all those who made his 23-year-old journey “beautiful and memorable”.
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“All good things come to an end and today as I bid adieu to the game that has given me everything in life, I would like to thank everyone who made this 23-year-long journey beautiful and memorable. My heartfelt thank you Folded hands Grateful,” he said on Twitter.
All good things come to an end and today as I bid adieu to the game that has given me everything in life, I would like to thank everyone who made this 23-year-long journey beautiful and memorable.
My heartfelt thank you 🙏 Grateful .https://t.co/iD6WHU46MU— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) December 24, 2021
The 41-year-old, who made his international debut in 1998 against Australia in a Test match in Bengaluru, went on to play 103 Tests, 236 one-day internationals and 28 T20 internationals till 2016. He picked 417 wickets in the long format, a tally which was recently bettered by fellow off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, besides 269 wickets in the 50-over and 25 wickets in the 20-over format, respectively.
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He also scored more than 3,000 international runs with two hundreds in Tests. He has also been a regular participant in the IPL till a few years ago and played for teams like Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders.
Singh, who also made the announcement on his official YouTube channel, said the retirement call was a tough one to make but in his mind, he had decided to call it a day after not having played for the national team in the last few years.
The last time he represented India was in a T20 match against the United Arab Emirates in Asia Cup in Dhaka in March 2016. In 2021, he played three matches for the Knight Riders in the IPL and was seen as a mentor for young spinners in the squad.
“My journey from the streets of Jalandhar to become the Turnabator for Team India has been a beautiful one. There is no bigger motivation for me in life than stepping out on the field, wearing the India jersey. There comes a time in life where we have to take a tough decision, you have to move forward in life. I was waiting for the last few years to make this announcement public — I am retiring from all forms of cricket,” Singh, who chips in as a cricket commentator and analyst nowadays, said on Friday.
“In my mind, I retired earlier itself but I am making the announcement today. In the last few years, I have not been playing active cricket. But I stayed with Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL due to the commitment I had made. But I had made up my mind to retire during the season,” he added.
Singh had always been a colourful character on the ground. While he was part of the Indian squads that won the T20 World Cup in 2007 and 50-over World Cup in 2011 besides picking 32 wickets in three Tests against Australia in the memorable home series in 2001, his career witnessed the ‘Monkey gate’ controversy during the tour of Australia in 2007-08.
He is also the first Indian bowler to take a hat-trick in Tests which happened in the famous match in Kolkata in 2001.
“I was delighted when I took the hat-trick in Kolkata, I was the first Indian cricketer to take a Test hat-trick. In that series, I picked up 32 wickets in 3 matches, it remains a record till now. After that, the 2007 T20 World Cup and the 2011 World Cup victories remain very important for me. I can’t forget these memories forever in my life. I can’t express in words how much joy those victories brought for me.
“In this journey, I met a lot of people that very few have the opportunity to. Some of them have become friends and some of them have become family,” Singh, who is married to Indian actor Geeta Basra and a father of two, said.
