(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) –Albie Morkel, the South African all-rounder, announced his retirement from all forms of cricket, on Wednesday (January 9).
Morkel, who played for close to 20 years of professional cricket, made his first-class debut for Easterns against Northerns in the 1999-00 domestic season. Morkel earned a call-up into the South African ODI set-up for the series against New Zealand in 2004 after snaring 12 scalps in List A games in the 2003-04 season.
Morkel essayed his highest individual score of 97 in the 50-over format versus Zimbabwe in 2007. He also snared 50 wickets in the ODI format. However, it was in the T20 format where Morkel made a name for himself, finishing with 4247 runs and 247 wickets.
He was a key component of IPL’s premier side Chennai Super Kings, taking 85 scalps and scoring 974 runs in the franchise-based league. When Super Kings won the IPL in 2011, he gave a glimpse of his skills, bagging 15 wickets. The very next season, he elevated his game with a game-changing seven-ball 28 to power Super Kings to a come-from-behind win versus Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Albie, the elder brother of Morne, led the Titans to a hat-trick of T20 titles between 2015-16 to 2017-18. Morkel also snared 26 scalps and accumulated 572 runs in T20Is for his country. The 37-year-old also played in a solitary Test against Australia in Cape Town in 2009.
