"I’ve always wanted to leave the game loving it" - Stuart Broad
Recently retired England seamer Stuart Broad revealed that he has had no regrets since informing captain Ben Stokes about his decision to step away from the game. Broad stated that he always wanted to retire from the game loving it.
Broad retired from professional cricket after the 2023 Ashes series. The right-arm seamer got a fairytale ending, taking the final two Aussie wickets to fashion England's 49-run win. He finished with 604 Test scalps in 167 matches.
Speaking to The Daily Mail, Broad feels finishing at the top and with his family witnessing him doing it was extremely special. The 37-year-old stated that he never wanted people to think he was rubbish. He said:
"Since I shook Ben Stokes’s hand and told him my decision, I’ve not had one doubt. Not one regret. Finishing with all my family at the Oval, in the way I did was special and I’ve always wanted to leave the game loving it. I’d always retained a bit of a fear of one day playing against an up and coming 20-year-old and them saying: 'I heard he was OK, but he’s actually rubbish.' So, I wanted to finish with people thinking I could still do the job."
Broad went on to reveal that he and Anderson planned not to retire together, leaving the dressing room enormously short of experience. He also disclosed that Anderson remains firm on continuing at the international level. The Nottinghamshire seamer added:
"It was like an unwritten clause in a contract that Jimmy and I never wanted to finish at the same time. We always wanted an overlap one way or the other, a crossover of knowledge, not 300-plus matches of Test experience disappearing out of the changing room. So, I chatted to Jimmy during the Old Trafford Test and he said he was going to work on loads of different things, would make sure he was as fit as anything going to India this winter and was buzzing about next summer."
Contrary to expectations, Anderson lacked penetration in the 2023 Ashes series. The 41-year-old managed only five wickets in four Tests at 85.40.
" It was the most satisfying feeling ever to end that Test match" - Stuart Broad
Stuart Broad stated that the last Aussie wicket at the Oval was precisely how Jonny Bairstow predicted it and added:
"Funnily enough, I saw Jonny Bairstow the night before in the hotel, after he’d been out with his family for a bite to eat, and he said: 'You know what’s going to happen, tomorrow? It’s going to finish with a bowled Broad, caught Bairstow.' So when I was hugging him, I reminded him: 'You called it'. It was the most satisfying feeling ever to end that Test match."
The 49-run win at the Oval meant England denied Australia the first series win in their backyard since 2001.