^ Retiring at certain age from the test cricket is widely accepted and no one bats eyes on the players in that case, problem arise when quality bowlers like Amir take retirement at early age. This is not good sign for test cricket and sets a bad precedent IMO.
Amir was not performing like he used to after returning after the ban, his swing is gone and he was not that effective but he was bowling decently in the shorter format because he still has the pace and that might have forced him to retire rather than the cricket board dropping him in Test.
Any idea when Test cricket will return, since there are no matches how about the Test championships, will they delay the finals for that.
He's only 28 year old, played around 35ish test matches so i would say yeah he took retirement way to early. 1 bad season is not correct excuse, when everyone knows he took retirement only because of limited over cricket. Try Imagining Starc, Bumrah, Rabada taking retirement for T-20.
Next month : Windies vs England
And not much clarity on WTC final due to pandemic.
Players have the freedom to do that, and there is hardly anything the cricket boards can do. T20 format is the money churner now and obviously a lot many of the players are going to skip the demanding test format for the shorter formats. If the boards want to attract players to test format, then they need to increase the salary and benefits by many times. Nowadays no one want to play just to enter the record books.
^^ If money is the only driving force and records/respect/representing the country are not priority then why not announce a retirement from the international cricket completely? Become a mercenary cricketer and play in every T-20 league similar to Windies players?
@JSRAW I don’t think that money was the motive behind Amir’s retirement, because he would never get to play in IPL or any big league because of his past mistakes (match fixing). Lastly I’m not sure if you’ll read this article or no where he clearly specified that he could not take the work load of playing in all formats, and hence he decided to quit Test cricket, and I feel that he’s correct to play less formats and keep himself fit for the long run.
"I can't roll back that lost time but I can manage my workload to extend my career as much as I can. With every passing day I'm getting older and I know fans want me to play. But if you look rationally I'm human and not an iron man. My passion is still there and I want to be there for fans, serving the country for a long time."
Sources:
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/27260793/mohammad-amir-announces-retirement-test-crickethttps://www.indiatoday.in/sports/story/indian-premier-league-pakistan-cricket-board-cricket-bilateral-ties-239079-2015-02-06