Graeme Swann retires

[sussexpob]

The first thing to say is obviously that the guy was a brilliant bowler for England since he came into the team, and his shoes may take some years to fill. He was dependable on most surfaces to do England a job of taking wickets and creating pressure, and was by far the best spinner in my lifetime England produced.

The second thought is to echo the concerns above; that a guy would make such a certain decision in the middle of a series!!

Is this yet another early casualty of overkill? The poor guy has looked absolutely jaded this tour!

[Alviro Patterson]

Surprised about the timing in the middle of a series but it was a matter of time before Swann was going to call it a day. One thinks the signs were there as early as 2011 when Swann feels ODI cricket should be scrapped, sympathised with KP over his retirement because of the amount of international cricket played, then said himself he doesn't see his young family much because of the amount of time spent with England.

[meninblue]

Poor man management.

Did lead role by bowling 30,35,40,45 overs in big bowling innings which took huge pressure and work of 3 pacers.Got injured ,the reason could partly be this excess workload.Performance dropped in two series and still they did not care to add a bowling resource.Imo this is due to excess workload or he retired because he was dropped for boxing day test.He shouldnt have been dropped or he should have been given less workload by playing five bowlers.Best England spinner i saw although he got drift only in his later stage of career and lacked a good doosra.Still a match winner.With Monty they looked more threatening vetsus Pak,SriLanka and India who are best players of spin.I doubt Jimmy,Broad will play long enough if they keep pkaying 4 bowlers attack.Drop of performance due to workload or injury coul result in another retirement.

Plares of such calibre do not retire like this.There is surely more about this retirement.He definitelly got frustrated by stupidity of management.

I am glad we will see him in forthcoming IPL although many fixers have played in it and it has been a tourbamebt results of which were decided by bookues ala Sreesanth and others.Financially he will earn more now as franchisees must have noted the retirement.Either in 2014 or 2015 IPL.BIG BASH.Carribean T20.I thibk he will play some of those after recovering fully.

Monty has shown he can play a major role in winning test series versus India in India.Also bowld superbly in UAE and Lanka.Monty being Englands second best succesful bowler with ability to take fiv e fers was obvious choice by selectors.

[alfie]

Not sure he has been declining. Look at his record for last summer, against NZ and Australia. He seemed to recover from his operation well, though I would expect to hear his elbow is bothering him again, as his revs seemed to drop over the home summer. I can't imagine his recent comments have had an impact; and if they have, it would be because he was ready to go anyway.

I suspect it's his injury, though exacerbated by the drag of touring, which means he can't face finishing the tour.

Pretty much agree , as I said on the other thread. A surprise , nonetheless . And I am very sorry to see him go ; he has been a very fine , late blooming , cricketer - and will not be easily replaced.

[DeltaAlpha]

Well, that came out of the blue to me, but I'm not sure we should start looking for conspiracy theories, just thank him for what he's done for English cricket and wish him all the best for the future.

Thanks, Graeme.

[Gingerfinch]

Whatever the reasons, he has massive boots to fill. A very good spinner, the best English one I have seen, and I would think, a great team man.

A career in the media now?

[braveneutral]

Enjoy your retirement! I don't think it is as shocking as it first appears to be. I hope he enjoys what must be his first normal Christmas in a while (if he gets back home).

[GarlicJam]

Whatever the reasons, he has massive boots to fill. A very good spinner, the best English one I have seen, and I would think, a great team man.

I'd agree with all of that. He also seemed like a nice bloke, personable and quite funny. Didn't wear his collars well though.

[dan08]

He hasn't ruled out playing in the IPL. He's only retiring from international cricket and first class so i guess the door is still open.

[hopeforthebest]

Not sure he has been declining. Look at his record for last summer, against NZ and Australia. He seemed to recover from his operation well, though I would expect to hear his elbow is bothering him again, as his revs seemed to drop over the home summer. I can't imagine his recent comments have had an impact; and if they have, it would be because he was ready to go anyway.

I suspect it's his injury, though exacerbated by the drag of touring, which means he can't face finishing the tour.

I think that says it all AC. He was probably one of the 2 to 3 most important players during Flowers reign and his loss coming on top of Trott's departure is going to be hard to recover from.

[Kim]

Not sure he has been declining. Look at his record for last summer, against NZ and Australia. He seemed to recover from his operation well, though I would expect to hear his elbow is bothering him again, as his revs seemed to drop over the home summer. I can't imagine his recent comments have had an impact; and if they have, it would be because he was ready to go anyway.

I suspect it's his injury, though exacerbated by the drag of touring, which means he can't face finishing the tour.

Yep. Ive decided to take his press conference at face value as that's a reasonable thing to do!. And if he isn't physically right there really isnt any point in playing the last two Tests.

Twitter outrage at his selfishness from people who wanted him dropped anyway is amusing.

Great bowler who leaves a huge void there seems no prospect of filling any time soon.-

[Aidan11]

Shame about Swanny.

Despite his laddish antics he was a very good bowler. The timing is unfortunate but he obviously hasn't taken this decision lightly.

Bad news for England is there is no-one good enough to replace him yet. Monty was not as good as him and bowlers like Kerrigan, Briggs & Borthwick aren't yet ready IMO.

[KipperJohn]

Well, that came out of the blue to me, but I'm not sure we should start looking for conspiracy theories, just thank him for what he's done for English cricket and wish him all the best for the future.

Thanks, Graeme.

Couldn't agree more. Well played Graeme Swann

[Arthur Crabtree]

Have there been any conspiracy theories?

Swann has suggested tiredness and injury played their part, and particularly he was bowling too many overs. He felt he was not contributing in the second innings for these reasons. It's hard not to include the trials of touring in how sudden the desire to stop now rather than see the series out.

[D/L]

Thought he might stay for the T20/ODI World Cups but obviously he's had enough.

Also, what a turnaround it's been for Monty. A few months ago, it was unlikely that he'd play for England again, now he's the number 1 spinner.

That's a rather worrying thought. We may now have to regularly take the field with a mediocre spinner and just 10 batsmen and fielders. We need to find a decent replacement for Swann with some urgency now to shorten, as much as possible, Panesar’s tenure as #1.

Swann’s decision did indeed come as a surprise but, on reflection, it seems to be entirely in keeping with the general unravelling of the current set-up.