Days after announcing Indian overseas citizenship, Australian speedster Shaun Tait retires from cricket

New Delhi: Australia fast bowler Shaun Tait has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket, few days after revealing that he has become an overseas national of India. Tait hung up his boots after a 15-year long career at the competitive level, playing hi last match coming for the Hobart Hurricanes against the Sydney Thunder in the 2016-17 Big Bash League.

"I honestly wanted to play a couple more years, whether it was over in the UK or here," Tait was quoted saying by cricket.com.au. "I knew it was going to be difficult getting older to compete with the young blokes. I'm 34 years old and I suppose when you're not contributing on the field as much as you'd like to, it's time to finish up."

Tait had taken to Twitter on March 19 to announce that he has become an overseas citizen of India, becoming eligible after marrying Indian model Mashoom Singha in 2014.

"I didn't know it was going to be as difficult as it was this year [with the Hurricanes]," Tait added. "Pretty much getting left out of the side or not being able to play because of my elbow, either way there's no point going on with it. I knew during the Big Bash that I was going to finish up. The elbow has pretty much gone off a cliff now, it's done and dusted.

"It would have been nice to play another year maybe, but there's no point getting more surgery and play when I'm 35 when I'm probably not up to it anymore. If I was still performing really well, I'd probably do it [have surgery and keep playing]. But I just wasn't. The game's getting quicker and better and I'm getting slower and a bit older. It's that simple."

Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland also reacted to the quickie's decision saying, "In his prime, Shaun was the world's fastest bowlers. It was incredibly exciting to watch him full flight bursting through the defences of the game's best batsmen. Unfortunately, injuries restricted Shaun at certain stages and he certainly didn't play as much as he would have liked."

The 34-year-old made his last appearance for Australia in a T20I fixture against India in Sydney in early 2016 – marking his comeback to international cricket after five years of absence.

In total, he played three Tests, 35 ODIs and 21 T20Is for the Kangaroos.