Former India wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel announces retirement from all forms of cricket

Former India wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel, who made his international debut at the age of 17, has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. Patel, 35, informed about his retirement through a tweet.

Patel played 25 Tests, 39 ODIs and two T20Is, scoring 934, 736 and 36 respectively in the three formats. His last match for India was in January of 2018, when he turned up for a Test match against South Africa in Johannesburg. He made his debut for India during the 2002 tour of England.

“On this day, as I pause and reflect to assess how for i have come, the biggest wish i have is for my father to have been standing beside me, at the closure of my journey as a cricket player, as he has thru most of my life and career. Today, I announce my retirement from all forms of cricket, and as I bring down the curtains on thin 18-year-old cricketing journey. I feel heavier with gratitude toward many,” Parthiv said in an extract.

The BCCI showed a generous amount of confidence and faith in a 17-year-old boy to play for India. I have enormous gratitude towards them for being a guiding force and hand holding me, in the formative years of my young career. I’m thankful to all the captains I have played under. I’m especially indebted to Dada, my first captain who showed immense faith in me. I Feel privileged to have been in the company of and learnt from some stellar team mates a lot of whom I can call friends today in the same breath I must admit players on the opposing team have been as inspiring and thought me well.”

In fact, he played his first Ranji Trophy after he was dropped from the India squad in 2004 due to below-par glovework on tours of Australia and Pakistan. Parthiv played an astonishing 194 first-class games in which he had scored 11,240 runs with 27 hundreds at an average of 43 plus and led Gujarat to their maiden Ranji Trophy title in 2016-17, where they beat Mumbai in the final.

Add to it 194 List A games and 204 T20 games, Parthiv had a long run but it was just that Dhoni was a few lightyears ahead as a performer. But Parthiv did play for a lot of IPL teams, including Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore during the last 13 editions. Probably not getting a game in this IPL edition for RCB was decisive in his case.

“I am full of gratitude to the Gujarat Cricket Association, my home, for solidly rallying around me throughout my journey, and the leadership role conferred upon me couldn’t have been more joyous and fulfilling than our team winning all formats of the game,” the extract said.

(With PTI inputs)