Cape Town, Feb 26 (IANS): England's narrow six-run defeat against South Africa at Newlands in the semifinals of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup has also resulted in veteran seamer Katherine Sciver-Brunt ending her time in playing World Cups too, having previously retired from the longest format of the game.
"I've been thinking about retirement daily for two years. It used to be after every tour, I'd question what I was doing. But as it's drawn closer, I've thought about it a bit more seriously and it does creep into your mind when you're training, mainly because of the pressure other people put on you."
"The media do like to keep tabs on you. Are you close to the end? Is your body holding up? You get all those comments and then you start to think, 'Oh, am I slowing down? Should I stop? Am I embarrassing myself?' I've always said I would like to retire on top, where I'm still wanted, I'm still picked in the first 11, I'm not less than what I used to be."
"That's how I've felt in the last six months, those things are starting to creep in where I can see somebody taking my role and doing it just as well. This is definitely the last World Cup and beyond this point, I'm fairly close to it all being along the same line, so it won't be long," Katherine was quoted as saying by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
World Cups are where Katherine, 36, made her name, posting figures of three for six in the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2009 final in a year which saw England claim the ODI and T20 World Cups as well as the Ashes. In 2017, she was part of the side that won the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup in front of a sell-out crowd at Lord's.
"Looking back on my career, I'd like to think I was Mrs. Consistent. I'd like to be remembered as someone who was always at the top of my game and always contributing to my country, helping us in a winning cause and giving everything I had."
"The new name is a bit of a mouthful, isn't it? The good thing is Nat can carry on my name, and the legacy of Brunt will carry on which is great. Having my name associated with hers is also great because she's a bit of a legend in her own right now," she concluded.