2018 round-up: 5 biggest retirements in cricket

#3 Alastair Cook

Alastair Cook

Among the nicest men to have graced the field, Alastair Cook couldn’t have asked for a better setting to retire. England sealed the series against India in September at the Oval. Cook scored a magnificent century in his last innings and walked off after playing 161 Tests, in which he has scored a whopping 12472 runs, an achievement he can be chuffed about.

Leading England a record 59 times in Test cricket, including 24 wins, Cook will be remembered for his scores of 60 and 104 not out on his debut in Nagpur in 2006. His 766 runs and three centuries started as England won an Ashes series in Australia in 2010-11, the first time in 24 years.

Cook captained England to a 2-1 victory in India the following winter. The 33-year-old Cook, who retired as the sixth-highest scorer in red-ball cricket, averages 45.35 in Tests and 36.40 in 92 ODIs.

A lean run with the bat in the past 15 months or so, with him not catching that regularly too meant that Alastair Cook felt it was the right time to make way from someone new to establish themselves in the England side. And he will certainly happy to see how well England dominated Sri Lanka in their home conditions recently.

And the solid, dependable opener received the biggest honor any sportsman could receive when he was awarded knighthood, the only cricketer after Sir Ian Botham whose contribution to English cricket has been recognized this magnanimously.