‘A lot of proud moments’: Former Proteas opener Dean Elgar announces retirement
· Citizen
Top-order batter Dean Elgar will bring his 21-year professional cricket career to a close next month, the former Proteas opener has confirmed.
The 39-year-old player revealed on Wednesday he would retire when the end of the County Championship season, where he represented English club Essex, concluded on 27 September.
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“It’s the right time for me now to be present at home and be there for my partner and my kids,” Elgar said.”It’s been a great journey so far. It’s not done yet, but at the end of the season, I will be retiring.”
During his international career, which lasted more than 11 years, first-class specialist Elgar had played 86 Tests and eight one-day internationals. He captained the Proteas on 13 occasions.
Elgar remained one of only two batters (the other was Desmond Haynes of the West Indies) to carry his bat in three Test matches.
After retiring from the international game in January 2024, he had joined Essex where he found immediate success and was named Batter of the Year after his first season at the club.
A memorable journey
Though he was likely to play a few more games for Essex – they had five more matches scheduled this season – he had played a total of 561 top-flight domestic and international games throughout his lengthy career across all three formats.
He had racked up 18,981 runs in 279 first-class games at an average of 41.90, including 55 centuries.
“If you look back at the journey of where I have come from, I don’t think many people would have given me a lot of hope of having a career (in cricket), let alone one that spans over two decades,” Elgar said.
“There’s been a lot of proud moments during my time. Obviously, beating England at Lord’s as captain (of South Africa) is one of them. That stands out quite profoundly, purely the way we played cricket and the style and brand in which we played it.”
Having represented Somerset and Surrey earlier in his career (as well as Free State and the Titans), Elgar was pleased to have been able to close out his career at Essex.
“I’ve always had pride in my performances and, naturally, I play this game to win. But personal performances have never been something I’ve focused on,” he said.
“Every moment I’ve had on the park with the Essex boys, when we’ve won and had successes, has been an awesome highlight for me during my time at the club.”