On 9th of January, Dwaine Pretorius retirement shocked the International Cricket fans. He labelled this transition as a move to focus on T20 cricket.
“I am shifting my focus to T20 and other shorter formats for the rest of my career,” he said.
He currently plays for the Chennai Super Kings in IPL, Welsh Fire in the Hundred, St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in the CPL and with Durban Super Giants in the SA20.
For the SA20 this year, he was bought in for Rand 4.1 million.
Born on 29 March 1989 in Randfontein, South Africa, Pretorius is an all-rounder. He bats right handed and bowls right arm medium pace.
He represents North West in first class cricket and has played international cricket for South Africa.
Across formats he has represented South Africa 60 times, which includes 3 Tests, 27 ODIs and 30 T20Is.
DWAINE PRETORIUS DEBUT WITH SOUTH AFRICA
Pretorius debuted for South Africa in an ODI on 25 September 2016 against Ireland. He picked up a wicket in the game and gave away 19 runs.
He did not get to bat as South Africa posted a huge total of 354-5. In his debut T20I, he scored an unbeaten 77 off just 42 balls which included 7 fours and 3 sixes.
Dwaine also picked up a wicket in that game and earned the player of the match award.
TOUGH TIMES OF PRETORIUS
Things have not always been easy going for Dwaine Pretorius. He had to miss the U19 World Cup in 2008 to a knee injury.
Post this, he reduced his pace and focused more on line and length. At the 2021 T20 World Cup he impressed one another.
He picked 9 wickets at a strike of 9.7. However, he yet again lost his spot to another injury right before the 2022 T20 World Cup.
The best figures by a South African bowler in T20Is is by him (5-17 v Pakistan). In first class cricket, he has scored 2805 runs and picked up 173 wickets in 61 games.
Dwaine Pretorius retirement would be huge drawback for the South African Cricket.
By 2019, he had decided to sign a Kolpak deal with Nottinghamshire. However, with the change in Cricket South Africa administration, he was convinced to continue his international run.
WHAT IS KOLPAK DEAL ?
For those who do not know what a Kolpak deal is –
It is an arrangement that lets players from the Organisation of African, Caribbean, and Pacific States (OACPS) play for countries within the European Union(EU).
So basically, players from other countries can play cricket in any EU country without being taken as an overseas player.
The signed player, however can return to playing for his nation once the deal is over. One downside of this deal would be countries losing out on good players to lucrative deals in the EU.
DWAINE PRETORIUS RETIREMENT STATEMENT
His statement also read,
“Being a free agent will help me achieve the goal of being the best short format player I can be”. “By doing this, I will be able to have a better balance in my career and family life.
He also thanked his fellow teammates Faf Du Plessis, Chris Morris, Rassie van Der Dussen, Tabraiz Shamsi and Anrich Nortje to name a few.”
The SA20 starts on 10th of January followed by the Indian Premier League in March end. Seems like the newly “free agent” has a lot of league cricket coming his way.
