Chris Cairns to Retire

Champion New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns is said to be going to anounce his retirement from international cricket this afternoon.

The 35-year old, who retired from tests two years ago to prolong his career in ODI cricket until the 2007 World Cup, will cite a lack of enjoyment as the reason for his decision. His performances in the Zimbabwe tour of September suggested that might be the case, but after being dropped for the South Africa tour, he showed he still had the desire at that point by working extremely hard and regaining his spot.

He continued to struggle and look disinterested at the bowling crease though throughout the series against Australia and Sri Lanka, and was erratic with the bat, so in a way the announcement doesn’t come as a surprise. But at the same time, the 2007 World Cup has always been his aim, so to leave just 12 months before is a slightly surprising move. However, it allows one of New Zealand Cricket’s finest servants to go out on his own terms, which is the way all champion cricketers should go.

In his retirement, Cairns will follow his recently developed business interests and possibly an analysis job of domestic cricket in England.

A cricketer with statistics like those Cairns has achieved, 4950 runs and 201 wickets in ODIs, is not easy to replace. However, New Zealand have a number of all-rounders who are ready to take over his mantle, in particular the massively talented but injury-prone Jacob Oram.