The 42-year-old cricketer Wasim Jaffer announced his retirement from all form of cricket. The right-handed top-order batsman was one of the greatest Indian cricketers in first-class history.
Wasim Jaffer served for the Indian team in 31 Tests and two ODIs where he scored 1,944 runs (average 34.10) and ten runs (average 5.00). He made his international debut during 2000 Mumbai Test against South Africa. Out of Jaffer’s five Test centuries, two were double centuries (212 against West Indies at St John’s in 2006 and 202 against Pakistan at Kolkata in 2007).
Jaffer played his last international match in 2008 during the Kanpur Test against South Africa. He played both the ODIs in 2006 during India tour of South Africa.
Wasim Jaffer finished as the fifth most run-scorer in Indian first-class cricket history
However, Jaffer’s first-class career is highly impressive. He made the first-class debut for Mumbai in 1996/97 season. After serving for Mumbai for a long time, he served for Vidarbha from 2015/16 to this season (2019/20).
After playing 260 first-class matches, Jaffer scored 19,410 runs with an average of 50.67. He finished as the fifth most run-scorer in Indian first-class cricket history. He hit 57 centuries and 91 half-centuries in the first-class career. Jaffer’s best knock in a first-class innings was 314 not out.
In his career, Jaffer won many trophies, including ten Ranji Trophies (eight for Mumbai and two for Vidarbha). Under his captaincy, Mumbai won two Ranji Trophies and West Zone won one Duleep Trophy (2010).
Wasim Jaffer is the only cricketer to play 150 matches in Ranji Trophy history. The right-handed batsman is also the only cricketer to score 10,000+ runs in Ranji Trophy history as he scored 12,038 runs in this tournament. Not surprisingly, Jaffer is also leading the most career centuries in Ranji Trophy history as he hit 40 centuries in this tournament.
Even in the 2018/19 Ranji Trophy season, Wasim Jaffer was the second most run-scorer as he scored 1,037 runs in 15 innings (average 69.13). In his last Ranji Trophy season (2019/20), Jaffer scored 263 runs in nine innings (average 29.22), including three half-centuries.
Jaffer’s last match was against Kerala at Nagpur in this early February where he scored 57 runs.
In his cricket career, Wasim Jaffer also played 118 List A matches and 23 T20s where he scored 4,849 runs (average 44.08) and 616 runs (average 28.00) respectively.
He also featured in IPL where he served for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the first two seasons of this tournament. In IPL career, he played eight matches where he scored 130 runs (average 16.25), including one half-century (50 runs).
Here is the full statement of Wasim Jaffer
“First of all, I would like to thank The Almighty Allah, who gave me the talent to play this beautiful game. I’d like to also thank my family – my parents and brothers for encouraging me to pursue the sport as a profession and my wife, who left a cosy life of England to create a lovely home for our children and me.
A special thanks to all my coaches, right from my school days to professional cricket, for helping me polish my skills. A heartfelt thanks to the selectors who showed faith in me.
My gratitude to all the captains I played under and all my colleagues from whom I learnt so much about the game and shared some lifelong memories. I would also like to thank all the support staff who were a constant pillar of support in my long journey.
Thank you to the BCCI, Mumbai Cricket Association and Vidarbha Cricket Association for giving me the opportunity to represent them.
My corporate team Indian Oil Corporation Ltd that has looked after me for 20 odd years. My school Anjuman-e-Islam from where my journey to become professional cricketer began. Sudhir Naik sir for giving me opportunity to play for National cricket club.
I’d also like to thank all the bowlers who bowled tirelessly for me to improve my game and to my well wishers, who have always prayed for me to do well.
Among moments I will cherish the most is getting my India Test cap, scoring 202 Vs Pakistan, 212 vs West Indies and winning Test series in West Indies and England 2006-07.
I am honoured to have shared the dressing room with the likes of Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, and MS Dhoni to name a few.
What can I say about Sachin? i could go on and on about him. He was my role model. Feel really blessed to have watched him play from such close quarters. In my opinion he was one of the best players of that era along with Brian Lara.
My longest association was with the Mumbai team and it’s here that I learned about the khadoos nature of cricket that Mumbai players are known for.
Represented the 41-time Ranji champions from my under-16 days till 2014. Sanjay Manjrekar was my first captain.
I feel privileged to have shared the Mumbai dressing room with Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli, Zaheer Khan, Amol Muzumdar, Nilesh Kulkarni to name few.
After becoming the captain in 2008, I hope I passed on some legacy to Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Surya Kumar Yadav, Aditya Tare and others.
I would also like to thank Chandrakant Pandit for showing faith in me when no team showed any interest to have me as a professional for 2017-18 season. It is because of him that I got a chance to play for Vidarbha again and create history of winning a Ranji Trophy and Irani Cup twice.
My father wanted one of his sons to represent India and I feel proud to have fulfilled his dream.
After all these years in cricket, it is time to move on. But just like the red ball format which is very dear to me, it’s the end of only the first innings. I am looking forward to the second innings in any capacity, be it in coaching, commentary etc. As long as I stay involved with the game as this game has given me so much.”