Shoaib Akhtar calls end to the career

On Wednesday evening, at a Pakistan High Commission function in Colombo, he told a handful of reporters that he would make the announcement on Thursday. After Pakistan’s training session at the Premadasa, Shoaib arrived in jacket and trousers and told the press of a decision he had made, fittingly for him perhaps, in a hospital bed after yet another knee surgery two years ago.

Shoaib Akhtar will retire from the international game at the end of Pakistan’s World Cup, bringing to a close one of cricket’s most compelling and mercurial careers. Privately, over the last few months, Shoaib had been looking at the World Cup as a final hurrah for a body increasingly unable to cope with the rigours of the international game.

He said he had discussed the matter with the team management during the tour to New Zealand earlier this year, but decided to go ahead with it only now, dousing speculation that he might have been pushed into it. His Pakistan team-mates were told of the decision at the Premadasa on Thursday morning during an emotional gathering in the dressing room, where he delivered a farewell speech and was embraced by fellow players and support staff.