Alviro – A player of the past

Alviro Petersen (34) recently announced his decision to retire from international cricket. This will come into effect from 01 April. The Proteas opening batsman made his Test match debut for South Africa in February 2010, in India. He scored 100 in his first innings.

Alviro Petersen did the right thing by retiring from international cricket now. Photo taken from www.allthingsjabu.co.za

For me, Petersen joined the national side when we were struggling to find good opening batsmen. He did well. His respectable performances seemed like an answer to our need. Establishing himself as a reliable Test opener, he attacked from early on in his innings, slowed down later, and often finished on a good score.

But as with every cricketer, as the years went on he struggled more and more to turn out the good performances we saw from him in the past. The inevitable effect of time influenced his career, and his batting average dropped to less than 40. Then it dropped to the mid thirties, where it will probably stay forever.

Do not misunderstand me. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Alviro Petersen open the batting for South Africa. He displayed great technique and played with confidence. He also played very well for the bizhub Highveld Lions, the domestic cricket team in Johannesburg. I will miss Petersen. But it is time for him to go.

Even the greats Jacques Kallis, Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar had to retire when they could not go on. It is part of life. The spirit may endure but the body and mind will eventually fail. Farewell Alviro Peterson and thanks for five years of good cricket.

Below are Alviro Petersen's statistics as of 12 January 2015:

Batting and fielding averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	36	64	4	2093	182	34.88	4044	51.75	5	8	256	12	31	0
ODIs	21	19	1	504	80	28.00	610	82.62	0	4	54	3	5	0
T20Is	2	2	0	14	8	7.00	19	73.68	0	0	1	0	1	0
First-class	188	330	17	12191	210	38.94			35	50			148	0
List A	168	161	11	5083	145*	33.88			7	31			64	0
Twenty20	109	103	17	2445	84*	28.43	2005	121.94	0	16	231	59	53	0

Bowling averages

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	36	7	114	62	1	1/2	1/2	62.00	3.26	114.0	0	0	0
ODIs	21	1	6	7	0	-	-	-	7.00	-	0	0	0
T20Is	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
First-class	188		1582	809	16	3/58		50.56	3.06	98.8	0	0	0
List A	168		394	361	8	2/48	2/48	45.12	5.49	49.2	0	0	0
Twenty20	109	19	199	215	9	1/4	1/4	23.88	6.48	22.1	0	0	0