Shaun Tait announces retirement from all forms of cricket

Chronic elbow injury has got the better of Australian quick Shaun Tait, who plans to put down his papers. Former 2007 World Cup winner Shaun Tait, at the age of 34, officially announced retirement from the game.

Commonly called ‘The Wild Thing’ for his exceptional pace bowling action, the former pacer played three Tests and 54 limited-overs internationals for Australia and was a part of their unbeaten campaign at the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies, which Tait says was the highlight of his career.

Tait has a unique record to his name. The second-fastest delivery bowled in international cricket, a 161.1km/h thunderbolt against England in 2010 was by him, that was just 0.2 km/hr slower than Pakistan’s Shoaib Akhtar’s record.

But Tait’s express pace meant he was often benched by injuries; he retired from first-class cricket in 2009 and ODIs in 2011 but continued to play as a T20 specialist around the world, recently for the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League.

But a chronic elbow problem has forced him to retire from domestic T20 leagues as well, “I honestly wanted to play a couple more years, whether it was over in the UK or here,” Tait told cricket.com.au.

“I knew it was going to be difficult getting older to compete with the young blokes. But I didn’t know it was going to be as difficult as it was this year. Pretty much getting left out of the side or not being able to play because of my elbow, either way there’s no point going on with it.”

Shaun further said that this was an emotional phase of his life and that he would miss being around his teammates.

“It’s emotional, there’s no doubt about that. The first time when you know you’re going to retire, you look back to when you first started. It seems like it was yesterday, but it’s been 15 years now. It’s probably a cliché that a lot of guys say, but just being with the lads”