Sad day but understandable from a purely cricket point of view. It did cross my mind last year that Michael might retire back then.
As a Captain of England I put him right up there with Mike Brearley.
In 2002 he scored over 900 runs in the home series against Sri Lanka and India. He then went on to batter the Aussies on the 2002/3 tour down under to the tune of 600+ runs. His tally for 2002 alone was 1,481.
After his knock of 156 against South Africa at Edgbaston in 2003 he was made Captain. Then followed that good run of results in 2004. Played 13, won 11, drawn 2. this was then followed up by the 2005 Ashes win.
In late 2005 we saw the first of many occurrences of his knee problem and he was never the same again.
It’s always been a given that a test average of 40 labels a player as great and he did achieve this.
Tests 82 Runs 5719 Average 41.44.
He also had the most exquisite cover drive ever seen in the game and it’s that alone that I will remember him for.
Thank you for all those runs and just for a while making us a great team through your captaincy.
PS. Just to cheese the Yorkshire mob off, he was actually a Lancastrian, born and bred in Eccles.
