Cricket's changing times

Date released: 6 November 2008

The year 2008 saw a number of changes in the world of cricket - with a number of famous names retiring from the international and county cricket scene.

The debate about the pros and cons of the Twenty20 format will, no doubt, continue for many years yet.

The impact of some of the players who have called it a day in the last 12 months will last much longer.

First to fall

The first big name retirements came as early as January and February '08 and started, as the cyclical seasons would dictate, in the Southern Hemisphere.

Australia have already lost Glenn McGrath to the great retirement pavilion, closely followed by Shane Warne (who continues to hint at a possible Ashes comeback).

Gilchrist, batting for Australia at Lord's The next Aussie heading to the pavilion for the last time was wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist.

'Gillie' is widely credited with having changed the role of wicketkeeper for ever. His prowess with the bat meant international teams could no longer afford to have a glove-man who's familiarity with the bat extended to watching the back of the blade for nicks and edges.

The big-hitting batsman performed well at _'The Home of Cricket' too a constant thorn in the England team's side - though none of his 17 Test match centuries came at Lord's, his best at the famous Ground, 90.

Test match record
AC Gilchrist

Batting stats - 96 Tests; 2 at Lord's

^{Stats from CricInfo's StatsGuru}

Hot on his heels, announcing his retirement in February, during England's tour of New Zealand, was reknowned Black Caps skipper, Stephen Fleming.

Black Cap at bat: Fleming at Lord's in 2004 Fleming's record as captain of New Zealand bears comparision to any who have gone before him and will be held up as an example to those that come after.

Fleming's outstanding international record, averaging over 40 runs from his 111 Tests, wasn't helped by the Lord's slope.

His average topples to just shy of 25, without a century or half-century to his record at Lord's.

Test match record
SP Fleming

Batting stats - 111 Tests; 3 at Lord's

^{Stats from CricInfo's StatsGuru}

Winning smile: Ganguly wins the NatWest Trophy at Lord's in 2002 Staying in the Southern Hemisphere, India stalwart Sourav Ganguly also hung up his international batting gloves for the last time in 2008.

Unlike Fleming, Ganguly's record at Lord's bears comparison to any of the international grounds he has played at in his 112 Test career.

Test match record
SC Ganguly

Batting stats - 112 Tests; 3 at Lord's

^{Stats from CricInfo's StatsGuru}

Compounding the impact on the India team, Anil Kumble announced his retirement, to great surprise in early November.

Dravid, Kumble & Pollock made honorary MCC Members|IMAGE:37258|ALIGN:RIGHT|CAPTION:Kumble: was recently made an honorary MCC Member]The mercurial spinner and India captain stepped away from international cricket before the final Test of the current India v Australia Series.

On the generally seam-friendly pitch at Lord's Kumble's masterful spin bowling did not have the usual success. His career average of 29.65 dropping to 41.00 in his three Tests at Lord's.

Kumble's influence on cricket's future is far from over - he is now a member of the influential MCC World Cricket Committee.

Test match record
A Kumble

Bowling stats - 132 Tests; 3 at Lord's

^{Stats from CricInfo's StatsGuru}

County casualties

Bowing out: Hick has retired from county cricket It wasn't just the international stage that lost some famous names to retirement.

The most notable of these, arguably, was Graeme Hick.

The Worcestershire batsman called it day at the end of the season.

Summing up the misfortune which Hick battled through his career, he missed his own swansong through injury!

Test match record
GA Hick

Batting stats - 65 Tests; 10 at Lord's

^{Stats from CricInfo's StatsGuru}

Champagne moment: Gough with one of many man-of-the-match awards Another county cricket hero, with England experience, who hung up his spikes this season - the ever popular Darren Gough.

The former England seamer's name appears on the Honours Boards at Lord's (like most of this season's retirees) after his 5-61 against Pakistan in 2001.

Test match record
D Gough

Bowling stats - 58 Tests; 8 at Lord's

^{Stats from CricInfo's StatsGuru}

Gough ended his final county cricket season as captain of his beloved Yorkshire - a mantle formerly held by Ashes-winning England captain, Michael Vaughan.

Vaughan vacates - stepping down from captaincy role Vaughan also, notably stepped down from the England captaincy this summer. He wasn't alone in stepping away from a famous and successful captaincy: Sussex's County Championship winning skipper, Chris Adams followed suit.

Sussex also lost the services of iconic spin bowler Mushtaq Ahmed.

Mushtaq played a large role in Sussex's three county championship wins. Being the leading wicket taker for five successive years - taking 598 wickets on the county cricket scene.

Mushtaq has set an interesting new precedent though a trend fast becoming a craze. The Pakistan spinner has now taken up a role in England's training set-up, as a specialist spin-bowling coach.

Other famous former internationals now making moves into the coaching scene include: Angus Fraser is the new Managing Director at Middlesex; Graham Thorpe a new batting coach at Surrey.

There are some shuffles in the county captaincies too:

Adams left the role at Sussex; Stuart Law was released from Lancashire to be replaced by Glen Chapple; Glamorgan have released captain David Hemp, replaced by Jamie Dalrymple; Darren Gough has been succeeded at Yorkshire by Anthony McGrath and right up to date, Jon Lewis has just ceded the Glouscestershire captaincy so he can focus on cricket.