EXCLUSIVE: Stuart Broad on bowing out with England at the right time
Stuart Broad on bowing out with England at the right time, emotional scenes at the Oval… and why he couldn’t retire at the same time as Jimmy Anderson
- Stuart Broad has explained the reasons behind his retirement from cricket
- England’s record Ashes wicket-taker decided to call it a day on his playing days
- Broad believes now was the right time to retire as he finishes on a high
It was only in the aftermath of the most sensational of goodbyes to a sporting career that Stuart Broad began to feel emotional.
Not in the hours that immediately followed his series-levelling dismissal of Australia’s Alex Carey at the Oval, but the next day when he was able to view his Ashes efforts through a different lens.
‘I woke up and saw a clip of headband-wearing fans in the crowd celebrating a wicket, and I was like, “Wow”. I’ve always worn my heart on my sleeve but it was seeing what it meant to other people that got me,’ Broad explains.
‘Later, as I took my dog Alfie to the park near where I live, I walked past a house five minutes down the road and there was a headband tied around the railings at the front. I looked up and there were posters in the window saying: “Thank you so much for your career.” It was really cool.’
Following last weekend’s bombshell announcement there have been hundreds of well-wishing messages (‘Apologies, I’ve not replied to them all yet but I will,’ Broad says), a send-off from his England team-mates in the Oval dressing room that stretched into the early hours of Tuesday and a farewell lunch on Thursday with coach Brendon McCullum.
Stuart Broad has exclusively spoken to Mail Sport on his decision to retire from cricket
Broad (right) wrapped up his final wicket for England as he secured victory in the final Ashes Test at the Oval
Broad (middle) surprised the nation by deciding to call it a day on his stellar career in cricket
It has been a week of transition, and an episode during the opening of the next chapter of his life in cricket highlighted just how quickly things move on.
Broad arrived at Lord’s on Wednesday for his first commentary stint with Sky Sports without accreditation and attempts to gain access to the ground with his player pass failed. He had already been deactivated on the ECB system.
His long-term future with Sky will be formalised at the end of the season, once Hundred and limited-overs commitments he signed up for earlier this year have been completed, while he has been flooded with other TV offers too in the form of reality shows. Strictly Come Dancing is not for him, though: ‘One, I can’t dance and two, I quite like the idea of not training for something now.’
For the past 17 years, that training was designed to get him into England teams, but when he took off the shirt for the final time following the fifth Test victory over Australia, he knew the conclusion he had come to after a fortnight’s deliberation was the correct one.
‘Since I shook Ben Stokes’s hand and told him my decision, I’ve not had one doubt. Not one regret. Finishing with all my family at the Oval, in the way I did was special and I’ve always wanted to leave the game loving it,’ Broad says.
‘I’d always retained a bit of a fear of one day playing against an up and coming 20-year-old and them saying: “I heard he was OK, but he’s actually rubbish.” So, I wanted to finish with people thinking I could still do a job. A couple of people inspired me in that regard: Alastair Cook, obviously, with how he stepped down with England and Chris Read because he left Nottinghamshire with every single one of his team-mates telling him, “You could definitely have done another year.”
Intriguingly, if he had continued, Broad says it would not have been with an intention to play one more year but two, due to a sense of duty to the England team.
Australia naturally suffered after greats Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath walked away together at the start of 2007 and Broad, wary of a partnership that has shared a Test record of 1,039 combined wickets exiting simultaneously, sounded out new-ball partner Jimmy Anderson’s future intentions in his initial deliberations.
If Broad had continued, he says it would not have been with an intention to play one more year but two
‘It was like an unwritten clause in a contract that Jimmy and I never wanted to finish at the same time. We always wanted an overlap one way or the other, a crossover of knowledge, not 300-plus matches of Test experience disappearing out of the changing room.
‘So, I chatted to Jimmy during the Old Trafford Test and he said he was going to work on loads of different things, would make sure he was as fit as anything going to India this winter and was buzzing about next summer.
‘Hearing how excited he was to carry on suggested that it could be time for me to end what was the ultimate partnership, really. One that grew over time. We understood each other probably better than we understood ourselves.
‘I could spot things in his technique; he could spot things in mine. We would drive each other forward all the time in training and matches, developing a hugely competitive spirit, and our attributes complemented each other. Me being tall, I hit a different length to Jimmy. He swung it, I seamed it and that allowed us to put a lot of pressure on batters.’
Fittingly, Anderson was the first person to be embraced when Broad’s aeroplane celebration in recognition of the 49-run win at the Oval landed at mid-off.
During a career of 604 Test wickets, Broad has developed a reputation for setting opponents up for dismissals, but he smiles as he reveals he was actually bowling an inswinger to Carey, looking to beat the bat on the inside and not clip its outside edge.
‘Funnily enough, I saw Jonny Bairstow the night before in the hotel, after he’d been out with his family for a bite to eat, and he said: “You know what’s going to happen, tomorrow? It’s going to finish with a bowled Broad, caught Bairstow.”
‘So when I was hugging him, I reminded him: “You called it”. It was the most satisfying feeling ever to end that Test match.’
He admits there is one more thing he would like to remember the occasion by, though. ‘I’m still trying to locate the ball,’ he says, ‘I don’t know whether Bairstow just threw it up in the air or the umpires have got it, or whatever, but I’m still on the hunt for it. I have put in enquiries, because it would be nice to have it.’
Broad (left) admitted he has been overwhelmed with the amazing support from England fans after he decided to retire
Broad (left) shares a brilliant relationship with England swing bowler Jimmy Anderson (right) and revealed the decision to retire was prompted after the pair held conversations
Broad (left) won’t play professional cricket again but Anderson (right) has no plans to retire
SIX OF THE BEST: Broad’s favourite career wickets
Chaminda Vaas, Sri Lanka – Colombo, December 2007
My first one has to be in there because it started the journey. According to Hawk-Eye, the SSC is the flattest pitch in the world and if you were to come into Test cricket, play on a green seamer and get five for 20, you’d be like ‘what’s the graft about?’
But I bowled 36 overs in the first innings in seriously hot heat, got Vaas out with a short ball in going for 95 runs and loved every minute. It taught me the need to learn more skills but also the need to keep ‘turning up’ every day.
Praveen Kumar, India – Trent Bridge, July 2011
The bowled-through-the-gate dismissal completed a hat-trick after I sent back Mahendra Singh, Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh. As I ran in, it felt like the ground was bouncing. It was Saturday afternoon, everyone was having a good time, the sun was out and the ball just nipped back perfectly.
Eoin Morgan, who has played at some of the greatest grounds in the world, says that was one of the loudest atmospheres he ever heard.
Peter Siddle, Australia – Chester-le-Street, August 2013
Any match-winning wicket you take is incredible but this one was my sixth in the second innings and it meant we not only retained the Ashes, but won the series through taking a 3-0 lead with one to play.
It was not a classic, being caught at mid-off, but I bowled some good balls to get us into that position.
Adam Voges, Australia – Trent Bridge, August 2015
Ben Stokes’ slip catch left Australia 21-5 in the fifth over of the match and formed part of my career-best figures of eight for 15. My reaction, hands partially covering my face, is probably the moment people will remember.
I had the best view of the house as Stokes stretched behind him and caught it one-handed, just above the turf. You don’t take wickets unless guys catch well and here was an example.
Travis Head, Australia – Old Trafford, July 2023
I never thought I’d make the 600 club and to have my mum Carole there to witness it — she couldn’t be around for the 500th because of the Covid bubble — was special.
There were other reasons for cherishing it too. It came in Ashes cricket, and sent me past Ian Botham’s English record haul of 148 wickets against Australia.
Alex Carey, Australia – The Oval, July 2023
Not only a wicket to win an Ashes Test in front of a full house, but my last delivery. How could it not be among my favourites? I got nearer to the stumps because I’d been bowling pretty wide of the crease, tried to shape the ball back with the aim of getting a chop-on or bowled, but as it moved back slightly he poked at it and nicked it, allowing Jonny Bairstow to catch. Jonny had predicted it would end this way the night before.
Carey was his 153rd victim in Ashes skirmishes. No other Englishman can match that. And no other series pushed the man himself to such levels of performance.
‘Yeah, I certainly look fondly on playing against Australia and to be in the top three with Warne and McGrath in terms of Ashes wickets is special because they were two heroes of mine,’ Broad continues.
‘And to me the reason I am there is not so much because of my ability. I’ve never seen myself as one of the most naturally-gifted bowlers like a Jimmy Anderson or a Dale Steyn. No one would ever look at my bowling and claim that I have a classical action or that I have the ball on a string.
‘No one would say that I have caused loads of problems for opponents through skill. Relentlessness, determination and tactical nous have been my core attributes.
‘There is so much data around that if you have an inquisitive mind you can find ways to make things more difficult for even the best batters. David Warner was an example of someone who had been a real thorn in my side and I had to change my style because of that.
‘I’m 6ft 6in and he’s 5ft 6in, we have very different body shapes and I was bowling from such a height that he was constantly playing me off the back foot.
Broad’s terrific performance in the recent Ashes ensures he retires as England’s record wicket taker with 153 scalps
Broad will move into television presenting after retiring from playing and his long-term future with Sky will be formalised at the end of the season
‘So I had to change my lines, lengths and angles to him, or he was just going to keep defeating me. I managed to turn the balance of those battles around.
‘Although I didn’t dismiss him very often personally, the research I did on Marnus Labuschagne was another example and as a team we bowled really well at him by going wide of the crease.
‘The data showed Labuschagne is not a player dismissed lbw very often, and that suggested while facing up to mid-crease bowling he’s a phenomenal player, if you could change the angles it might bring his outside edge into play. Once he nicked two at Edgbaston, he was worried about it for the rest of the series and that’s where Ashes cricket is so brutal. It just keeps coming at you all the time. Test after Test after Test.’
The England star (left) made headlines after playing the role of England’s chief mischief-maker by playing with the bails at the Oval
Also brutal was the 19-point punishment that England received for their slow over-rates in the series.
‘It diminishes the relevance of the World Test Championship, to be honest. It’s been one of the most entertaining series of all time and for England to come out with nine points from a possible 60, the system’s wrong and needs looking at,’ Broad claims.
Thankfully, it will be the magic moments of this summer’s premier cricket event — of which Broad was at the heart of so many — that will remain in the memory.
Australian opening batsman David Warner (right) might enjoy seeing Broad (left) retire after being bowled by the Englishman plenty of times throughout Ashes series
Broad (right) was the star of the show as England drew the Ashes against Australia at the Oval
Not least the superstitious switching of the bails that preceded two Australian wickets last week, including the dismissal of Todd Murphy that preserved Broad’s spell (notice had already been served that Mark Wood would replace him from the pavilion end) and a fairytale ending.
‘People have said in equal measure these past few days: “Congratulations on your career” and “Wow, how good was the bails flip?” To be honest, I wish I’d tried it 10 years earlier.’
The Murphy jinx allowed him to cap a memorable 14 months of the Stokes and McCullum era by claiming Carey as wicket No 604 and walking off arm in arm with Moeen Ali, a player he first played alongside for an England Under-17 development team.
The only thing remaining is to track down the match ball — but there is plenty of time for that and Broad now has plenty of it.
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