Heinrich Klaasen has explained his decision to retire from international cricket.<\/p>\n
The 33-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman\u00a0announced on Monday that he would step away from the white-ball formats, having already left the red-ball game in 2024.<\/p>\n
Klaasen told Rapport<\/a> that he had planned to retire from international cricket after the 2027 ODI World Cup on home soil, but Rob Walter\u2019s resignation as Proteas white-ball coach had changed things.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt for a long time that I didn\u2019t really care about any of my performances and whether the team won or not. That\u2019s the wrong place to be.<\/p>\n \u201cI had a long conversation with Rob before the Champions Trophy and I told him I didn\u2019t feel good in my heart about what was going on. I wasn\u2019t enjoying it that much.<\/p>\n \u201cWe talked nicely, we planned everything nicely up to and including the World Cup in 2027. So when he finished as coach and the [contract] negotiations [between Klaasen and CSA] didn\u2019t go as planned, it made my decision a lot easier.\u201d<\/p>\n Klaasen was not among the list of CSA-contracted players named on 7 April as he wanted to play in the world\u2019s four biggest T20 leagues \u2013 the IPL, the SA20, The Hundred (in England) and MLC (in the USA).<\/p>\n According to Rapport, his participation in The Hundred was a sticking point with CSA as he would have missed a Proteas series against Australia.<\/p>\n Upon being named all-format coach last month, Shukri Conrad said CSA-contracted Proteas would no longer be allowed to skip white-ball series to play T20 franchise cricket.<\/p>\n