Former India batter Aakash Chopra has opined that players are taking premature retirement from international cricket. However, he stated that they have every right to do so to secure their future as well. Notably, South Africa’s Heinrich Klaasen and the West Indies’ Nicholas Pooran recently announced their international retirements across all formats as well. Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who retired from T20Is after the 2024 T20 World Cup, retired from Test cricket during IPL 2025 as well.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “Everyone is retiring. What exactly is happening? There is a huge list of players who have retired, and it seems like some of them have retired early. Who retires so early? Someone is leaving a format, and someone is leaving international cricket totally. Some are not taking central contracts. Kane Williamson is one of them.”

“Some people are asking whether it’s a country vs club debate. The cricketers’ point of view is very simple – ‘I have a very limited time span, my shelf life is very short.’ When you buy a biscuit or a milk packet, best before is written on it. The ‘best before’ comes with every player,” he again shared.

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“Then you realize that if you don’t achieve your full potential in a particular time frame, when the sun sets on your career, you will be alone with your family. So he is not okay with where he is right now, and if he becomes a T20 freelancer for the next four or five years and earns a lot of money by playing across the world, he can almost guarantee his happy retirement,” he further added.

However, Aakash Chopra opened up that players like Heinrich Klaasen and Nicholas Pooran chose to retire from international cricket as they don’t earn enough while playing for their countries as well.

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“Assuming you are a South African cricketer like Heinrich Klaasen or a West Indian cricketer like Nicholas Pooran, your earning potential to play for the country is so limited that it is not going to suffice. It’s easier to pursue if you are with a rich board, but if you are with some other board that doesn’t have money, it’s easier to say no,” he said.

“From the board’s point of view, some of them have their hands tied. They don’t have money. So where will they give from? In some cases, like the West Indies, there used to be a tussle. There is a different ego battle going on there. So one gets upset very quickly. If you are not accommodating, then I am going,” Aakash Chopra concluded.