The sports events have been pulled off globally due to the corona outbreak. Mean while South Africa’s Andrew Birch announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on Tuesday(March 17).
The 34 year old Andrew Birch had cricket in his blood. His grandfather had played cricket for the Borders in the 1940s and his brother Colin Borch also had trysts with franchise cricket. And Andrew grew up doing the same and metamorphosed into a bowling all-rounder.
With more than 300 first-class wickets and 2000 runs, Birch is one of the pillars of the Warriors team at the first-class and list-A level. Birch has topped the bowling charts for them at a regular basis and even was the leading wicket-taker for the 2012-13 season in the domestic one day competition.
His retirement comes prematurely after the One-Day Cup was cancelled ahead of the semi-finals. Cricket South Africa (CSA) announced on Monday that they have terminated the one-day domestic competition and all forms of cricket for the next 60 days. The steps were taken to help curb the coronavirus pandemic that has spread around the world.
Birch, who was expected to play in Wednesday’s semi-final against the Lions, called time on his career on his Instagram account.
“I’m extremely proud of my career and I would like to thank each and every person that played a role in anyway,” he wrote.
“I leave the game with the most incredible memories which I’ll look back on fondly in the years to come. Life long friendships have been made which I will forever treasure. Once again thanks guy’s! Now to the next chapter.”
The 34-year-old finished on 330 wickets in 99 First-class appearances, 157 wickets in 109 List A games and 98 wickets in 84 T20s.
Batting Average
| Matches | Innings | Runs | |
| First class | 99 | 153 | 2184 |
| List A | 109 | 76 | 819 |
| T20s | 84 | 39 | 250 |
Bowling Average
| Matches | Innings | Runs | |
| First class | 99 | 8556 | |
| List A | 109 | 4032 | |
| T20s | 84 | 84 | 2157 |
