33-years old South African tall right-arm pacer Morne Morkel has taken the retirement from the international cricket. He said that he will miss the game as he enjoyed everything in this game.

During the press-conference of his last international game, Morne was emotional and said, “A lot of guys say they don’t miss the game, but I’m definitely going to miss it. There was not one day did I not enjoy coming to nets. I enjoyed everything.”

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Making a debut in the international cricket in 2006, Morne played 86 Tests, 117 ODIs and 44 T20Is where he took 309, 188 and 47 wickets. Recently, he became the fifth South African bowler to claim 300+ Test wicket. Also, he was the sixth South African bowler to claim 500+ wickets (535 wickets) in international cricket.

The right-arm fast bowler was the part of former Proteas skipper Graeme Smith’s plan to make a strong pace bowling group. Morkel was one of the members of the South African cricket team who beat England and Australia in their home grounds for the first time since South Africa’s readmission.

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Talking about his memorable moments with the national teammates, Morne said, “You have all heard the stories of [Jacques] Kallis and those guys crying in the bus when that happened. To create a team culture and identity with Biff (Graeme Smith) and Gary [Kirsten] was special. Since then, walking on the field for South Africa every time was unbelievable.”

Talking about his regret, Morne mentioned the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup semi-final match against New Zealand where they suffered a thrilling defeat. He said on that, “I remember it like yesterday. I had that ease in my heart that [Dale] Steyn would do it and then the way Grant [Elliott] took the game away … The body is still good for one more World Cup but unfortunately, I won’t be on that bus.”