While 2022 was kind enough in bringing lots of quality cricket to our sights, it also turned out to be a little disappointing one and especially for those following women’s cricket since ages as retirements of Rachael Haynes, Jhulan Goswami, Mithali Raj, Katey Martin, Amy Satterthwaite and many more, left a scar uncovered with their flavour no more a part of the great game.
Mignon du Preez
The 33-year-old announced her retirement from One-Day International (ODI) and Test match cricket early this year on the 7th of April, a few days after South Africa’s exit from the 50-over World Cup and announced her retirement from Twenty20 Internationals (T20I) on 8th of December. The middle-order fighter, played 269 international games and scored 5684 runs and has got the highest score of 116* that she’d got against Ireland.
Anya Shurbsole
The 31-year-old made a shocking retirement announcement on the 12th of April from all forms of international cricket. The skillful pacer made 173 appearances in the three lions shirt for England across formats and while she bagged 227 wickets in international cricket, the handy tailender also scored 507 runs off 71 innings with the bat.
Katey Martin
The 37-year-old wicketkeeper-batter called time on her 21-year-long illustrious career on the 17th of May. She walked out for the White Ferns on as many as 199 occasions and across all formats (1 Test, 103 ODI, and 95 T20I) has scored 2838 runs and her 81 in the ODI happens to be her highest in international cricket.
Amy Satterthwaite
The 36-year-old who matched her game to one of the world’s finest announced her retirement from all forms of international cricket on the 25th of May following a central control snub. Amy, in her career, didn’t happen to wear whites even once, but she made the most of white-ball cricket. In ODI’s, of 145 innings, she scored 4639 runs and bagged 50 wickets, and in 111 T20I match appearances, scored 1784 runs and struck 26 scalps.
Mithali Raj
The 40-year-old retired as one of the world’s greatest to’ve ever played the game. Mithali made as many as 333 international appearances (12 Test, 232 ODI, and 89 T20I) across formats and scored over 10,000 runs in international cricket, 10, 868 to be precise. Her 214 in Test match cricket happens to be her highest score in the game internationally.
Lizelle Lee
30-year-old, on the 8th of July, shocked the cricketing world by announcing her retirement from all forms of international cricket following mistrust from Cricket South Africa (CSA). The power striker made 184 appearances across formats and scored over 5000 runs in international cricket (5253) and her 132* in One-Day cricket happens to be her highest score in the game internationally.
Deandra Dottin
The 31-year-old attacking opener in a shocking call announced her retirement from all forms of international cricket on the 1st of August citing reservations about the team environment. Dottin in 143 ODI representations scored 3727 runs and bagged 72 wickets and in the shortest, T20I format, in 127 appearances the power striker scored 2697 runs and her 150* from One-Day cricket happens to be her best in international cricket.
Rachael Haynes
The 35-year-old, on the 14th of September, announced her retirement from all forms of international cricket with nearly 4000 runs. The ever-reliable, gutsy batter, made 167 international appearances (6 Tests, 77 ODIs, and 84 T20Is) for Australia and scored 3818 runs and also bagged a few wickets (13) being a part-time left-arm pacer.
Jhulan Goswami
The 40-year-old bid farewell to the great game at one of cricket’s most iconic venues, Lords, the home of cricket, on the 24th of September in a fitting fashion. The legendary pacer retired with 284 international games experience under her legs and with as many as 355 wickets to her name. The handy lower-order batter, off 182 innings, 1924 runs and yes, she’s also got a few (3) the fifties to her name.
That’s an impactful list of elite professionals who’ve bid goodbye to the game and hopefully with the year not many days away from closing out, there hopefully isn’t a 10th debutant on the list.