Dan Christian, Australian T20 veteran, to retire after ongoing season of BBL

Sydney: Australia’s most experienced T20 cricketer Dan Christian has announced that the ongoing Big Bash League will be his last tournament, calling it quits on a glittering career spanning 17 years.

“Yesterday (Friday) at training I told by Sydney Sixers teammates that I’ll be retiring from playing at the end of the BBL season,” the pace-bowling all-rounder, who will turn 40 in May this year, posted on Twitter on Saturday. Christian has amassed 5809 runs and bagged 280 wickets from 405 T20s for 18 different teams, including at international level and in seven separate competitions.

He also has played 23 T20Is and 20 ODIs for Australia.

Sixers have four more matches and are guaranteed two shots at reaching the BBL final, having finished in the top two of the regular season.

“Sydney Smash tonight, followed by our last round game against the Hurricanes, and then the finals,” said the BBL veteran, who remains the only player to have scored more than 2000 runs and taken more than 90 wickets, with a record 133 games to his name.

He was also instrumental in Melbourne Renegades’ only title success in 2019. With Sixers, he won the 2020-21 title to make it nine titles since 2010.

“Hopefully we can go all the way again this season, but regardless, it’s been a great run. I’ve achieved things and made some memories that I could only have dreamt of as a kid,” Christian said.

“I’m looking forward to now having the time to catch up with you all and not having to use the excuse ‘sorry, I’ve got cricket’,” he added.