On this day in 2006: Damien Martyn’s shocking retirement

An accomplished batsman and classical shot-maker whose strokes were never enough for the eyes, Damien Martyn was an unsung hero in a bunch of legends, in what was Australia’s golden era. Martyn was often overshadowed by the might of those gigantic names around him, but when it would come to contribute to the team, he was equally effective as the stalwarts around him.

He was quite old fashioned in his style as a batsman, but there was seldom a dull moment when Martyn was in the middle. Despite such credentials, he almost never played for Australia again after debuting in the early 90s as he was sidelined for six years before he could play a Test again, four years as far as the ODIs were concerned.

Career numbers in brief

Not stopping the grind, Martyn toiled hard in the domestic circuit, and a leadership role there at a tender age helped him develop and learn considerably. Whether the swinging tracks in England, the bouncy ones in South Africa, or the dusty and turning tracks in the subcontinent, Martyn aced everywhere. Since his comeback, he just never put a foot wrong, and he cemented himself as a vital cog of the Australian batting line-up in both Tests and One Day Internationals.

Although, after 67 Tests for the nation and scoring close to 4500 runs at an impressive 46.37, Damien Martyn’s retirement came as a shock to everyone. On December 9, 2006, in the middle of an Ashes series broke the shocking news, especially for the Australian cricketing fraternity. Damien Martyn, 35, announced his retirement from cricket ahead of his home Test at Perth.

In a four-paragraph letter to the then Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland, Martyn dropped a bomb of shock on the entire cricket circuit. On being asked to reconsider his decision by Sutherland, Martyn stood unmoved. On being asked if he discussed anything about his call with Captain Ricky Ponting, he had replied in the negative. With age not being on his side and Australia losing the Ashes for the first team after 16 years in 2005, the deliberation was bound to gain pace as Martyn did not have the form to back him. Despite the lean run of form, the management persisted with the experience of Martyn.

After the first two Tests, things went from bad to worse for the 35-year-old as he had aggregated just 35 runs in his last three innings, and although he was under some pressure to keep his spot in the playing eleven, his drastic step caught many off-guard.

Martyn retired after a career involving 67 Test matches where he scored 4,406 runs at 46.38, including 13 centuries and 23 half-centuries. He was a much more prolific one-day player, scoring 5,346 runs in 208 matches at 40.80, including five centuries and 37 fifties.

Years later, on being asked about his shocker call, all that he had to say was: “I just couldn’t go on. I was letting down my teammates. A lot of people might not be happy with it, and some people will be shocked and disappointed, but for me, it was the right time to go.”