Graeme Swann retires from cricket

Graeme Swann, the England off spinner, has retired from all international cricket and first-class cricket with immediate effect.

Swann, 34, will not play in the final two Tests of the Ashes tour and will finish his career with 255 wickets at 29.96 from his 60 Tests. However, on a disappointing tour of Australia in which England have gone down 3-0 after the first three Tests, Swann has been one of the senior players who has failed to have an impact and has managed only seven wickets at 80.

 

Swann's decision means Monty Panesar is likely to take the role of lead spinner for the remaining two Tests, but the broader question of who will be England's long-term Test spinner remains unclear. Swann himself nominated the Durham legspinner Scott Borthwick as a potential replacement who could add to the all-round "x-factor" that Ben Stokes had already brought to the team on this tour.

Swann noted that the success of Stokes, who scored England's first century of the Ashes series in their defeat at the WACA, was indicative of the way the senior men had failed to stand up on this trip. It was a very different scenario in England earlier this year, when Swann was the leading wicket taker from either side with 26 victims, and at the time it appeared that he may still have some chance of surpassing Derek Underwood to become England's leading Test spinner of all time.

England have not threatened to do that on this tour and Swann has had a miserable time on the pitch. There has been a concerted Australian plan, which has obviously been extraordinarily effective, to target Swann, who has been such a vital component in England's recent success. He has never been hit for six so often since beginning his Test career five years ago. Moreover the Australian bowlers have neutered him as a batsman. Swann has always been the most gifted driver of a cricket ball. He has had nothing to drive in Australia. Instead he has been constantly peppered by Ryan Harris and Mitchell Johnson.

However, Swann will finish 42 wickets short of Underwood's tally of 297, leaving him sixth overall on England's all-time wicket tally behind Ian Botham, James Anderson, Bob Willis, Fred Trueman and Underwood. That was a significant achievement given that Swann did not make his Test debut until the age of 29, but his consistency meant that he missed only six of the 66 Tests that England had played since then.

Since his debut in December 2008, Swann was Test cricket's leading wicket taker from any country, his 255 victims well ahead of Anderson (232), Stuart Broad (207) and Dale Steyn (205), who were the next best in that period. He was Man of the Match on six occasions, most recently for his 10-wicket haul against New Zealand at Headingley in May. Swann told his England team-mates of his decision on Sunday morning in Melbourne.

Swann’s brilliance stemmed from the amount of revolutions he was able to impart on the ball with his flexible fingers and a double whirl of his bowling arm, the highest among finger spinners who did not have pronounced kinks in their actions. When you get a sphere with a seam rotating that quickly, it begins to have quirky flight paths. Swann spun the ball sharply but good batsmen were undone more by the variations to his flight, dip and drift, which made up for his lack of a doosra.

Swann retires having been an integral part of three Ashes-winning teams, an England side which was ranked the best Test team in the world at one point, and another which won the World T20 tournament in 2010. Apart from his Test appearances, Swann will depart with 104 wickets from 79 one-day internationals and 51 wickets from 39 Twenty20 internationals. He also paid tribute to his two county sides, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire.