Strauss bombshell: My race is run
England captain retires from all forms of the game, but denies his decision has anything to do with the Pietersen debacle
England test captain Andrew Strauss said his "race was run" as he announced his retirement from all professional cricket with immediate effect yesterday.
And he insisted his decision to quit had nothing to do with the fallout from the ongoing England exile of star batsman Kevin Pietersen.
"After much thought over the last few weeks, I have decided to step down as England test captain and announce my retirement from all forms of cricket," Strauss said.
"It has clearly been a tough decision to make, but I believe that it is both in the best interests of the England cricket team and myself to step down at this stage," the 35-year-old, who played exactly 100 tests, added.
"The driver to all this is I haven't batted well enough for a long time. I wasn't going to improve batting-wise, I've run my race.
"It's one of these decisions when you know when your time is up."
Strauss has enjoyed modest returns with the bat in recent years and his 122 against the West Indies in May was his first test century since November 2010.
He followed up with another century, at Trent Bridge, but averaged just 17.83 in six innings against the South Africans.
Alastair Cook, already England's one-day captain and Strauss' opening partner in the five-day game, was announced as the new skipper of the test team.
England dropped Pietersen, who hasn't played international cricket in any format since making 149 in the drawn second test at Headingley, after he admitted sending "provocative" texts to South African players.
Some of these were alleged to have been critical of Strauss, who succeeded South Africa-born and raised Pietersen as England captain in 2009.
But Strauss said he'd spoken to England coach Andy Flower about retiring "before the Kevin Pietersen situation reared its head".
Strauss' last test was a 51-run defeat by South Africa at Lord's, his Middlesex home ground where he made his test debut in 2004, earlier this month that saw England surrender their No 1 test ranking to the Proteas.
Strauss scored 21 hundreds - one shy of England's all-time record - and led England to the top of the world test rankings, a run that included home and away Ashes wins in 2009 and 2010-11.
Cook's first test as captain will be the first of a four-match series in India in November.
The 27-year-old, who replaced Strauss as one-day captain after last year's World Cup, paid tribute by saying: "He has been a fantastic captain, has led from the front for 3-1/2 years and is a true ambassador for the game.
"I know this can't have been an easy decision for him and everyone in the dressing room will be sad to see him go.
"I'm very excited by this new challenge, it is a huge honour to be appointed test captain."
As a player, Strauss scored a century on his test debut, against New Zealand at Lord's in 2004 and in all scored 7,037 test runs at an average of 40.91 and took an England outfield record 121 catches, mainly in the slips.
His 50 tests as captain produced 24 wins, making him England's second most successful test skipper behind Michael Vaughan.
Asked how he'd liked to be remembered, Strauss, after saying he "hated" the question, replied: "That I played the game in the right way, adhered to my principles and if people remember me for that I'll be very happy."
