South African batter Farhaan Behardien announced his retirement from all forms of cricket, on Tuesday. This brings an end to his18-year-old career at the professional level.
Farhaan Behardien has played 59 ODI and 38 T20I throughout his cricketing career. He last played a t20 match in November 2018 against Australia. He was participating actively in the South African domestic leagues as he played for Boland.
Taking to social media, Behardien said “To be honest it wasn’t easy. The good stuff rarely is, but as a result, I haven’t “worked” a day in 18 years. because it was my passion and I loved the graft. Feet up for a bit and onto the next challenge.”
Summing up his decorated cricketing career, Behardien added “The dust has settled a bit. Been pretty emotional the last couple of weeks. 18 years have come and gone. 560 pro games across all formats, including 97 caps for my country, 17 trophies in the cabinet and bless to have played in 4 World Cups.
He further thanked his family as friends for their constant support and also expressed his gratitude towards the coaches he had played under. He did not shed much light on what he was going to do from here, nor did he hint about continuing to play domestic cricket.
Behardien made his first-class debut in 2004 and made his international debut in a T20i against India in Johannesburg in March 2012, played the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka later that year and later made his ODI debut in January 2013, at home against New Zealand.
He has also featured in IPL with Kings XI Punjab in 2016. In 38 T20Is that he played, he scored 518 runs at a good strike rate of 128.21 and a decent average of 32.37. He has also smashed 1 fifty and has a highest score of 64.
In the 59 ODIs, Behardien made a total of 1074 runs with an average of 30.68. He also has eight half-centuries with the highest score of 70. He also has a decorated first class career as he scored 7318 runs in 125 matches, including 12 centuries and also 46 half-centuries.