Raina retires from professional cricket

Indian batter Suresh Raina on Tuesday announced retirement from the Indian Premier League (IPL) and domestic cricket. However, he will be featuring in the upcoming Road Safety World Series and could also be seen playing the overseas leagues.

Raina, who announced his retirement from international cricket in 2020 along with Mahendra Singh Dhoni, played the IPL for Chennai Super Kings until last year. But this year, he was not part of the CSK outfit and was busy with commentary.

"It has been an absolute honour to represent my country & state UP. I would like to announce my retirement from all formats of Cricket. I would like to thank @BCCI, @UPCACricket, @ChennaiIPL, @ShuklaRajiv sir & all my fans for their support and unwavering faith in my abilities," Raina tweeted on Tuesday.

With several Indian companies owning franchises in South Africa and the UAE, there were speculations that he could participate there. However, some franchises Sportstar spoke to confirmed they will follow BCCI's rules on signing retired players and decide accordingly.

Earlier, the BCCI had indicated that no Indian player - who is part of the Indian Premier League - can feature in any other overseas league. Even an Indian cricketer who is associated with the IPL will not be allowed to take up any mentor role in other T20 leagues.

"The rule remains the same. Unless one has retired from all forms of the game and has no involvement in the IPL - as a coaching staff or playing staff- he cannot feature in other T20 leagues," a top BCCI official said.

In his long and illustrious career, Raina featured in 18 Tests, 226 ODIs and 78 T20Is for India in an international career spanning 13 years. He also had the honour of captaining the team briefly. Raina amassed 5615 runs from 226 ODIs and 1605 from 78 T20Is.