HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Gary Ballance retired from all cricket Wednesday, just two months after he switched allegiance and made his test debut for Zimbabwe in a bid to revive his career.
Ballance left the English county team Yorkshire in December after being involved in a racism scandal there, in which he accepted multiple charges, including that he had used racist language against teammate Azeem Rafiq.
Ballance hoped his move back to Zimbabwe — his country of birth — would give him “a newfound happiness for the game,” he said in a statement released through the Professional Cricketers’ Association of England and Wales announcing his retirement.
“However, I have reached the stage where I no longer have the desire to dedicate myself to the rigors of professional sport and this would do Zimbabwe Cricket and the game itself a disservice, should I carry on,” the 33-year-old Ballance said.
Ballance played 23 tests for England and just one, in February, for Zimbabwe, when he made 137 not out in his first innings for his re-adopted country and seemed set to make it a successful switch.
Ballance was a Zimbabwe youth international before moving to England.
He made his test debut for England in the fifth Ashes test against Australia in early 2014, a game that sealed a 5-0 series sweep for the Australians.
But he scored his maiden century in his next test against Sri Lanka at Lord’s and his early performances were so good that he became the third-fastest to 1,000 test runs for England behind greats Herbert Sutcliffe and Len Hutton.
But by 2017, three years after his debut, he had played his last test for England.
His unbeaten hundred on debut for Zimbabwe this year made him the second player after Kepler Wessels (Australia and South Africa) to score test centuries for two countries.