South African pace great Dale Steyn retires from cricket

Fast bowler 'bittersweet, but grateful' as he ends 20-year career

South African pace great Dale Steyn has retired from all forms of cricket. Reuters

Dale Steyn bowls for Royal Challengers Bangalore during IPL 2020 in the UAE. Sportzpics for BCCI

South African quick Dale Steyn retired as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time. Reuters

South African pacer Dale Steyn spent six years as the No1 bowler in ICC's rankings. AFP

South African quick Dale Steyn has retired from all forms of cricket. Satish Kumar / The National

Dale Steyn suffered a few injury setbacks towards the end of his career. AFP

South Africa's Dale Steyn took 439 wickets in 93 Test matches. Reuters

South Africa's Dale Steyn has retired from cricket. AFP

South African pacer and one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time, Dale Steyn, has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.

The right-arm quick, 38, thus ended his 20-year career in which he became South Africa’s highest wicket-taker in Test cricket.

Steyn retired from the five-day format in 2019 but had been available for limited-overs cricket and hoped to feature at the T20 World Cup in the UAE later this year.

"It has been 20 years of training, matches, travel, wins, losses, strapped feet, jet lag, joy and brotherhood. Today I officially retire from the game I love the most. Bittersweet, but grateful," Steyn said in a statement.

"Thank you to everyone, from family to team-mates, journalists to fans, it's been an incredible journey together."

Steyn took 699 international wickets, including a South African record 439 in red-ball cricket, and is regarded as one of the greatest quicks of his generation, alongside England's James Anderson.

He had not played any top-class cricket since March this year when he made the last of three appearances for the Quetta Gladiators in the Pakistan Super League.

Steyn spent six years as the number one bowler in Test cricket rankings. His best performance was arguably when he made his highest Test score of 76 and had match figures of 10-154 as he helped South Africa beat Australia in Melbourne in 2008 to clinch their first series win in Australia.

He also took a 10-wicket match haul on a dead Nagpur pitch in a 2010 Test against India is what is regarded as one of the best displays of quick bowling in the subcontinent.

Steyn spent a majority of his career relatively injury free but a shoulder injury in 2016 took some sting out his bowling, which relied on extreme pace.