BBL veteran Dan Christian hunts down record 10th domestic title after announcing retirement
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Big Bash League veteran is seeking a record 10th national title after announcing his retirement from cricket ahead of the 2022/23 finals
- Allrounder Dan Christian is one of cricket’s most capped T20 players
- He has played for 17 clubs, including almost every franchise in the Big Bash League.
- Christian has won nine domestic titles in the last decade in a successful career
- He will look to make it to 10 with the Sydney Sixers before he retires.
He is one of the most capped T20 players in cricket history and now former Australian representative Dan Christian is looking to close out with a record tenth Big Bash League title.
The 39-year-old veteran announced on social media today that this BBL season will be his last. And with his Sydney Sixers at the top of the ladder, he expects a fairy tale ending after nine T20 titles in his career.
Sydney Sixers all-rounder Dan Christian has announced that this season will be his last in the Big Bash League and in all of cricket after a long and decorated career.
The all-rounder has played 405 T20s, amassing 5809 runs and taking 280 wickets in seasons at a staggering 17 different clubs in Australia, the Indian Premier League, England and South Africa.
Over the past decade, he’s won nine T20 national titles, including the 2020-21 BBL title with the Sixers, two years after winning the same title with Melbourne Renegades.
From those two BBL campaigns it became clear what Christian was capable of – in 2018-19 he scored 254 runs and claimed 15 wickets (including man of the match in the final) and in 2020-21 he scored 272 runs with one strike – rate of 182.55.
He debuted for Australia in the T20 side in 2010 and the ODI side in 2012 before being dropped, then returned to both sides against the West Indies during a Covid-impacted tour that saw many big names sit out.
Cristian also has the fourth-highest score in T20 cricket history for a batsman reaching No.5, with 129 for Middlesex against Kent in 2014.
The Sixers’ Christian celebrates taking the wicket of Andrew Tye. He continued to show great form at 39 years old after playing for 17 different T20 teams.
However, just when it looked like the evergreen star might play forever, he dropped the retirement bombshell on his Sixers teammates.
“Yesterday in training I told my Sydney Sixers teammates that I would retire at the end of the BBL season,” Christian wrote on Twitter.
“Hopefully we can go all the way again this season, but despite everything, it’s been a great run.”
“I have accomplished things and created some memories that I could only have dreamed of as a child.”
Christian celebrates with fans during the Melbourne Renegades Big Bash League final victory over the Melbourne Stars in the 2018/19 competition
“What I didn’t expect to learn as a kid, though, is how many people I was going to come into contact with had an influence on my career and ended up becoming lifelong friends.”
“I hope now I have time to catch up with all of you and not have to use the ‘sorry I have cricket’ excuse.”
The indigenous talent is one of six players to notch a one-day hat-trick for Australia, as part of a career-best 5-31 record against Sri Lanka in 2012.
At BBL level, Christian remains the only player to have scored over 2000 runs and taken over 90 wickets, with a record 133 games to his name.