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Explosive South Africa batter Heinrich Klaasen has announced his retirement from international cricket ahead of the side's World Test Championship (WTC) final clash against Australia which is set to commence from June 11. Though Klaasen wasn't a part of the squad for the match, his retirement still comes as a big surprise.
Klaasen revealed about his decision with an emotional post on his official Instagram account. The 33-year-old recently scored a fabulous century for the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) while batting against the Kolkata Knight Riders in the ongoing season of IPL and looked to be in fine form. No one could have expected that he would announce his retirement just a few days later.
Heinrich Klaasen scored over 3,000 runs in international cricket
Klaasen featured for the Proteas in all the three formats. He played 60 ODIs for the side, scoring 2141 runs and featured in 58 T20Is, scoring exactly 1000 runs in the format. Test cricket was the format which he played the least as he only made four appearances for the national side and managed to score a total of 104 runs.
“It is a sad day for me as I announce that I have decided to step away from international cricket. It took me a long time to decide what’s best for me and my family for the future. It was truly a very difficult decision, but also one that I have absolute peace with," Klaasen wrote in his Instagram post.
“From the first day, it was the biggest privilege representing my country and it was everything that I have worked for and dreamed about as a young boy. I have made great friendships and relationships that I will treasure for life. Playing for the Proteas gave me the opportunity to meet great people that changed my life, and to those people I can’t say thank you enough. My road to wearing the Proteas shirt was different than most and there were certain coaches in my career that kept believing in me – to them I will always be grateful," he added.
“To have played with the Proteas badge on my chest was and will always be the biggest honour in my career. I look forward to spending more time with my family as this decision will allow me to do so. I will always be a big Proteas supporter and would like to thank everyone that supported me and my teammates during my career," he concluded.
Klaasen was the top retention pick of SRH ahead of the beginning of IPL 2025. The franchise gave the South African a whopping retention fee of INR 23 crore, making him the most expensive player in the league's history at that time.
However, IPL 2025 proved to be disappointing for SRH as the side finished sixth on the IPL points table and failed to make it to the playoffs. Klaasen had a decent season with the bat, scoring 487 runs in 14 matches and maintaining a fantastic strike-rate of 172.69.
Klaasen played a total of five seasons in the league, featuring for the likes of SRH, Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru. The batter's last match for the national side was the semi-final of the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy against New Zealand that the Proteas ended up losing by 50 runs.
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