South Africa-born Netherlands cricket, Sybrand Engelbrecht on Monday, June 17 announced retirement from international cricket. The 35-year-old, who made his debut for the Dutch side in 2023, called off curtains to his career after featuring in 12 ODIs and 12 T20Is.
The Netherlands batter’s decision comes after their exit from the group stage of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024. Netherlands’ 83-run defeat against Sri Lanka was notably Engelbrecht’s final appearance in international cricket, shining for the side with a spectacular boundary save, video of which is going viral on social media.
It is to be noted that Engelbrecht retired from all forms of cricket in 2016 to focus on his career in financial and project management. However, he began to play cricket recreationally in the Netherlands after moving in 2021. He was later picked up in the side for the 2023 ODI World Cup, played in India.
After communicating his retirement to the Cricket Netherlands, the official social media handle of the Dutch cricket team shared a post which read, “Go steady, SAE”.
Looking back at his numbers, Engelbrecht, who has now retired aged 35, have played maximum number of matches in the World Cups (8 of 12 in ODIs and 4 of his T20Is). The 35-year-old also finished as the highest run-getter for the side in the T20 World Cup 2024, with 98 runs at an average of 24.50, which includes scores of 40 and 33 which came in close defeats against South Africa and Bangladesh.