ESPNCRICINFO reports that Gary Ballance has retired from all cricket - does anybody know details, what happened ?

[sam_ahm]

I'm lost for words. This is disastrous. Will take time to sink in.

[Crastle_cog]

I don't know what to say.... We went from dreamers to believers. Now back to square one.

[Googly]

Being homesick for Yorkshire is like being homesick for Gokwe.

[eugene]

This is incredibly disappointing. He seriously couldn't stick around for the qualifiers?

[Xlife]

Apparently there was talk of this at the T10 launch the other night

‘Homesick for the U.K.’ is the reason supposedly.

I’m still sure there may be more to it though. He had talked of mental health problems over the last couple of years after the job Rafiq did on him so maybe there’s deeper stuff. Hope he’s okay.


Incredibly disappointing and a gigantic blow for our Qualifying chances.

It’s a shame because overall the mood music around our cricket remains overwhelmingly positive at the moment.

There's rumours about some drug related issue and that apparently he had already been caught earlier and disciplined for it. Any truth to those rumours do you think?

[Xlife]

Apparently there was talk of this at the T10 launch the other night

‘Homesick for the U.K.’ is the reason supposedly.

I’m still sure there may be more to it though. He had talked of mental health problems over the last couple of years after the job Rafiq did on him so maybe there’s deeper stuff. Hope he’s okay.


Incredibly disappointing and a gigantic blow for our Qualifying chances.

It’s a shame because overall the mood music around our cricket remains overwhelmingly positive at the moment.

There's rumours about some drug related issue and that apparently he had already been caught earlier and disciplined for it. Any truth to those rumours do you think?

[sam_ahm]

I feel for Gary, by the look of it, he doesn't appear to be in the right frame of mind to play international cricket. I wish him the best in whatever he does next.

Obviously this is a huge set back in terms of the WCQ chances but guys no body is bigger than the game. This opens up a spot for Innocent Kaia who was the one to miss out after Madhevere's excellent all round performance in the last series. Innocent is a very deserving player and I absolutely back him to do well.

[Googly]

Although GB must have a fairly healthy bank account he's not in the retirement range, so what is he going to do? He's only about 33. And if his missus is pushing for him to go back to Yorkshite that makes it even trickier. I'd understand if he was going farming here or something similar.

It does point to the fact that there's another issue.

[Googly]

There was never a mention of him having another skill. Maybe his wife's family have something on the go?
It's not so nice speculating, but it just doesn't add up, something is amiss.

[secretzimbo]

Ya I’m guessing his ZC deal was very lucrative. He was rumoured to be the highest paid county cricketer in England (not including centrally contracted guys) so ZC must have been paying him very handsomely too. That’s a lot of money to throw away. Must be a good reason.