Chris Wood Announces Red-Ball Retirement To Focus On White-Ball Cricket

The left-arm seamer will continue his career as a limited-overs specialist after calling time on his red-ball career

Hampshire Cricket can confirm that Chris Wood has announced his retirement from red-ball cricket in order to concentrate fully on a career as a limited-overs specialist.

The 29-year-old will only feature in white-ball matches for the club after deciding to call time on his first-class career ahead of the 2020 season.

Wood, a Hampshire Academy product who featured for each of the club’s age-group side as a youngster before making his Hampshire debut in April 2009, has since made 243 appearances for the club across all formats.

The skilled left-armer has been a key white-ball contributor in that time, featuring prominently in Hampshire’s limited-overs double in 2012 as well as the Royal London One-Day Cup triumph in 2018.

A crucial part to Hampshire’s T20 success over the last decade, Wood built on a number of particularly impressive T20 campaigns with another positive showing in last summer’s Vitality Blast, during which he became the club's all-time leading wicket-taker in T20 cricket.

The paceman has made 200 limited-overs appearances for Hampshire to date, claiming 131 wickets at an average of 25.97 in T20 matches, whilst totalling 106 wickets at an average of 27.96 in List A contests.

I’ve been desperate to play red-ball cricket, but in recent years every time I get up and running my body seems to hold me back, and this has been the case since having two knee operations over the last few seasons. When I play red-ball cricket, I feel I’m good enough to contribute to the team but my body just hasn’t allowed me to bowl 30 to 40 overs each week and in consecutive games, so I’ve been mulling it over for some time and now feels like the right time to finally make this decision.

Concentrating solely on white-ball cricket and trying to get the most of my career, playing the formats that I’m more comfortable with and have had more success in, feels like it makes sense and I’m looking forward to being able to focus all my training overs on improving my skills as a white-ball bowler, which will hopefully help me to continue contributing to the club’s limited-overs success in the years to come.

Chris Wood

The best way to catch Chris in action at the The Ageas Bowl in 2020 is with an Early Bird Vitality Blast Passport or discounted individual match tickets. 

Buy Early Bird Passports
Buy Tickets

To purchase your discounted Vitality Blast tickets or Early Bird Passport, please follow the link below or get in touch with a member of the Ticketing Team on 0844 847 1863 or in person at the The Ageas Bowl Ticketing and Membership Office during normal working hours. 

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