The veteran South African all-rounder, Johan Botha has decided to hang his boots from all forms of the game with immediate effect. The announced to quit during ongoing 2018-19 edition of the Big Bash League (BBL). This season, Botha has been plying his trade for the Hobart Hurricanes. While he was new to the franchise, he was certainly not a newcomer in the Australian cricket.
Botha had changed his nationality a couple of years ago to ply his trade in the Australian cricketing circuit. In the last season of BBL, he played for the Sydney Sixers. Swapping nationalities meant he was playing in the BBL not as an overseas player but as a local Australian cricketer, leaving room for his franchise to rope in another overseas player. The 36-year-old cricketer has played 5 Test matches, 78 ODIs, and 40 T20Is for South Africa in his career.
When it comes to the T20 leagues, he has featured in most of them and is a vastly experienced. He has played in the CPL, the IPL, and in the English domestic circuit as well. He has played 215 T20s and has scored 1966 runs. He has 163 wickets under his belt but his strength had always been his economy rate – 6.51 in the shortest format of the game.
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Hobart Hurricanes announced his retirement news on their official website of the Hobart Hurricanes. It was a rather nostalgic match for Botha when he played the last game for the Hurricanes. The match was against the Sydney Sixers, his previous franchise in the tournament. He finished with figures of 0/12 in the game.
As Johan Botha ended his career that spanned for 15 years, from this debut for South Africa in the year 2004, the Hobart Hurricanes have wished him luck for the future. Botha cited fatigue and the wear and tear in his body as the reason behind his retirement decision.
As per the quotes in Hurricanes’ official website, Botha said, “We wish the enthusiastic fitness fanatic, cyclist, golfer and runner all the very best with his future endeavours and thank him for his time and efforts at the Hobart Hurricanes since signing prior to the Abu Dhabi T20 in September 2018.”
