Hashim Amla, one of South Africa’s most celebrated batsmen, announced his retirement from all forms of cricket at age 39. As one of the most decorated cricketers in South African history, Amla’s retirement marks the end of an era for South African cricket.
Throughout a two-decade career, Amla has amassed an impressive 34,104 runs across all professional formats. Out of this impressive total, 9,282 runs came from his 124 Test appearances between 2004 and 2019. He is second only to Jacques Kallis, who made a remarkable tally of 13,206 in the longest format.
In 2012, Amla scored South Africa’s first triple-century in Tests with 311 runs not out against England at the Kia Oval.
Additionally, he scored 8,113 runs, including 27 centuries, in 181 One Day Internationals (ODIs), and 1,277 runs in 44 Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is).
During his career, he scored more than 18,000 runs across all formats for South Africa, with 55 centuries in 349 matches. With these statistics, Amla has been ranked as the number one batsman in both Test and one-day international cricket.
When talking about his retirement, Amla said, “I have great memories of the Oval ground and to finally leave it as a player fills me with immense gratitude for what has been.”
“A sincere thank you to Alec Stewart and the entire Surrey staff, players, and Members for their support. The Surrey ship runs so professionally that it would make any international player feel a sense of honor just to be involved with.”
His words were quoted on the official Surrey Cricket page with the caption, “Memories to last a lifetime. Thank you, Hash.”
“I have great memories of the Oval ground and to finally leave it as a player fills me with immense gratitude for what has been."
Memories to last a lifetime. Thank you, Hash 🤎 pic.twitter.com/wbSfwvHktQ
— Surrey Cricket (@surreycricket) January 18, 2023
Three years ago, Amla retired from international cricket after South Africa’s World Cup campaign. During that time, he had bowed out of Test cricket against Sri Lanka at Port Elizabeth in February. A year later, though, he re-joined the Surrey team.
During his final two seasons at Surrey, he contributed five more centuries, including a career-best 215 not out against Hampshire in 2021.
Aside from this, he represented Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League, plus Kwa-Zulu Natal Dolphins and Cape Cobras in South Africa’s domestic competitions.
While he has retired as a player, it is understood that he could be in contention to become South Africa’s batting coach, under the nation’s new coaching structure. He has already embarked on a coaching career, with a stint as the Mumbai Indians Cape Town’s batting coach in the ongoing South African T20 League.
When the player’s retirement was confirmed, Stewart, who has worked with Amla throughout his spells at Surrey, had plenty of positive things to say about him.
“Everyone at Surrey County Cricket Club will be sad to see Hashim retire, but we all applaud what has been a phenomenal career. He will quite rightly go down as a great of the game,” Stewart said.
Amla is not the only player on the team to retire. Earlier this week, South Africa’s leading wicket-taker Dale Steyn retired from Test cricket to prolong his playing career.