South Africa batter Heinrich Klaasen made a shock move to announce his retirement from all formats in international cricket on Monday.
Klaasen, who was recently in action for the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL 2025 season, wrote on Instagram: “It is a sad day for me as I announce that I have decided to step away from international cricket. It took me a long time to decide what’s best for me and my family for the future. It was truly a very difficult decision but also one that I have absolute peace with.”
Klaasen’s decision comes hours after Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell announced his retirement from ODI cricket.
“From the first day, it was the biggest privilege representing my country and it was everything that I have worked for and dreamed about as a young boy,” the 33-year-old Klaasen added.
The hard-hitting wicketkeeper-batter represented South Africa in all three formats across 102 appearances – 4 Tests, 60 ODIs and 58 T20Is. Aggregating all four of his international centuries in ODIs, Klaasen piled up 3145 runs since his debut in 2018.
Klaasen’s 117.14 strike rate is the second-best among all players who have amassed 2000 ODI runs, incidentally only behind Maxwell’s 126.70.
Klaasen recorded the highest-ever ODI score by a No. 5 batter in ODI cricket with an unbeaten 174 off 83 balls against Australia in 2023, smashing 13 sixes and as many fours.
‘Burn out in 2024’
Despite being at the peak of his T20 careers last year, Klaasen could not power South Africa cross the line in a T20 World Cup final chase against India in Barbados in June 2024. Klaasen later revealed that the result had taken a toll on him mentally.
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“I felt a bit burnt out after the T20 World Cup because I played five days after,” Klaasen had told the Rapport newspaper. “I played in three T20 finals this year – for the Durban Super Giants [SA20], for the Sunrisers Hyderabad [IPL] and for South Africa [losing all three]. Mentally I was very tired.”
“Playing for the Proteas gave me the opportunity to meet great people that changed my life, and to those people I can’t say thank you enough. My road to wearing the Proteas shirt was different than most and there were certain coaches in my career that kept believing in me – to them I will always be grateful,” Klaasen wrote further in his latest post.
“To have played with the Proteas badge on my chest was and will always be the biggest honour in my career. I look forward to spending more time with my family as this decision will allow me to do so.
“I will always be a big Proteas supporter and would like to thank everyone that supported me and my teammates during my career,” he concluded.
