England’s World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan has retired from international cricket with immediate effect, the England and Wales Cricket Board announced Tuesday.

Morgan led England to victory at the 2019 World Cup – their first major global 50-overs title in men’s international cricket – and took them to the top of the one-day and Twenty20 rankings.

Morgan, who started his international career with Ireland for whom he played 23 ODIs from 2006 to 2009, will be regarded as one of the all-time great English cricketers for his contribution with the bat and his leadership qualities.

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Here’s the statement issued by Morgan:

“After careful deliberation and consideration, I am here to announce my retirement from international cricket with immediate effect. 

“To call time on what has been without doubt the most enjoyable and rewarding chapter of my career hasn’t been an easy decision, but I believe now is the right time to do so, both for me, personally, and for both England white-ball sides I have led to this point.

“From my start in the international arena with Ireland to winning the World Cup in 2019, I have never lost sight of how integral family support is to any international sportsperson. To my Mum and Dad, my wife, Tara, and our family around the world, thank you for your unconditional support throughout the good and more challenging times in my career. Without you all, this incredible journey would not have been possible.

“I must also thank my teammates, coaches, supporters, and those behind the scenes who have made my career and any successes possible. I am hugely proud of what I have achieved as a player and captain, but the things I will cherish and remember the most are the memories I made with some of the greatest people I know along the way.

“I have been lucky enough to play in two World Cup winning teams, but I believe the future for England’s white-ball teams is brighter than ever. We have more experience, more strength and more depth than ever before. I look forward to watching on with a huge level of excitement.

“To what lies ahead for me, I will continue to enjoy playing at a domestic level while I can. I’m really looking forward to playing and captaining London Spirit in the second edition of The Hundred this year.”

— via ECB

The 35-year-old Dublin-born batter has been struggling with form and fitness issues this year. He was twice out for nought during the recent ODI series away to the Netherlands in Amstelveen and withdrew from the third match with a groin issue.

Morgan is England’s leading run-scorer of all time in ODI and T20 cricket with 6,957 and 2,458 runs respectively. His tally of 225 ODIs and 115 T20Is is also an England record. But he had made just two fifties from his past 28 international innings across the two white-ball formats.

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Prior to the Netherlands series he confessed to feeling his age and struggling to recover physically form matches, telling Sky Sports: “If I don’t think I am good enough or I don’t feel I am contributing to the team, then I will finish.”

Morgan switched allegiance from his native Ireland in 2009, having forged an English county career with Middlesex.

He was a pioneer in becoming an England white-ball specialist after calling time on a 16-Test career featuring two hundreds that ended in 2012 to concentrate on the shorter formats.

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A dynamic middle-order batter, Morgan was also a trailblazer in the English game with his then unusual ability to hit the ball to all parts of the ground.

He succeeded Alastair Cook as England’s ODI captain on the eve of the 2015 World Cup in Australia, where the team suffered a humiliating first-round exit.

Despite that reverse, Morgan remained in post and together with former England head coach Trevor Bayliss oversaw the side’s transformation into a major force in limited-overs cricket.

Here’s a look at the reactions from the cricket fraternity following the retirement of the former English captain:

With AFP inputs