Marlon Samuels, the West Indies batsman, who top-scored in both their T20 World Cup final victories, announced his retirement from professional cricket on Wednesday.
According to ESPNcricinfo, the 39-year-old informed Cricket West Indies (CWI) chief executive Johnny Grave about his retirement in June this year, having last played for his country in December 2018.
Samuels came into the limelight after his match-winning knock in the 2012 T20 World Cup final in Colombo. His quickfire 78-run knock against Sri Lanka helped the Windies register a comfortable win.
In the 2016 World T20 final in Kolkata, Samuels became the only man to be named as the ‘Player of the Match’ in two ICC finals after smashing an unbeaten 85 off 66 balls to seal a four-wicket win against England.
Samuels has been in the news for all the wrong reasons lately since his comments on Ben Stokes and his wife turned from bitter to ugly. While the comprehension of the reason behind Samuels’ recent social media behaviour was beyond most, it’s a fact that Marlon has never quite been the man who the common would relate to.
While his unique act of putting his padded legs on the table at the press conference was seen with contempt by many, it was poetic justice for a character like Samuels to be reprimanded by the ICC for breaching Level 1 of the governing council’s Code of Conduct. But it was due to the on-field hurled by him at Stokes that was the reason behind the punishment.
Across formats, Samuels made 11,134 international runs including 17 centuries and took 152 wickets with his quick off-breaks. He also represented several T20 franchises around the world later in his career, including Pune Warriors India, Delhi Daredevils, Melbourne Renegades and Peshawar Zalmi.
