South Africa's Heinrich Klaasen plays a shot during the tri-series ODI cricket match between Pakistan and South Africa, in Karachi, Pakistan, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
Heinrich Klaasen shocked the cricket fraternity and announced a sudden retirement from cricket. Klaasen took to Instagram to confirm the development. Klaasen played 60 ODIs, 58 T20Is, and 4 Tests for South Africa, scoring over 3000 runs across formats, including 4 ODI hundreds. He had already announced his retirement from Test cricket in 2024.
Klaasen confirmed that the decision was tough for him, but he took the call because he wants to spend more time with his family. Klaasen was one of the main pillars of South African batting, and his retirement months before the T20 World Cup comes as a massive blow to the South African team.
“It is a sad day for me as I announce that I have decided to step away from international cricket,” Klaasen posted on Instagram.
“It took me a long time to decide what’s best for me and my family for the future,” he added.
"The major reason for this decision is to spend more time with his family. I look forward to spending more time with my family as this decision will allow me to do so,” his post further read.
Heinrich Klaasen Opted Out Of Central Contract 2025-2026
Earlier this year, Klaasen opted out of the Cricket South Africa central contract and hinted at his shift towards T20 league cricket. Enoch Nkwe, CSA director of national teams and high performance, had revealed that discussions with Klaasen about his contract were underway, but it seems that the talks did not work out.
“We’ve been having all sorts of discussions, and he’ll come back to us on the way forward. I can’t go into detail at the moment, I can only do so once it’s been finalised. There’s obviously a lot to look at. There’s the T20 World Cup next year, the 2027 [ODI] World Cup, there’s his age … so the whole thing is not as straightforward as it might look. We’ve looked at every single element to this situation, from a contract point of view," he had said.
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