Katherine Sciver-Brunt signs off as hip injury prevents farewell appearance
England legend played her final professional game on Saturday at Trent Bridge
ESPNcricinfo staff
21-Aug-2023
Katherine Sciver-Brunt played her last professional game for Trent Rockets in the Women's Hundred • ECB/Getty Images
Katherine Sciver-Brunt has signed off from professional cricket at the age of 38, making the final appearance of her career for Trent Rockets against Birmingham Phoenix on Saturday.
Sciver-Brunt, who took 335 wickets for England across formats, announced her international retirement earlier this year and said she would end her career for good after the Hundred, but has struggled with a hip injury during the tournament.
She led a lap of honour at Trent Bridge after battling through the injury to bowl 20 balls off a shortened run-up in Rockets' narrow win over Originals, and decided against playing in their dead-rubber against Oval Invincibles in South London on Monday afternoon.
Sciver-Brunt finishes the tournament with a solitary wicket in her four appearances, and 26 runs in her two innings with the bat. Cassidy McCarthy replaced her in the side on Monday.
"I'm happy with the decision I've made and how it's all gone," Sciver-Brunt said, working on Sky Sports' coverage from The Oval.
"It's just quite a big chunk of my life that's going to change now - and obviously one that made me quite happy and fulfilled. I'm glad that I've shaped my life in the way that I have, and that I have Natalie [Sciver-Brunt] and my family and their massive support.
Sciver-Brunt won the ODI World Cup with England in 2009 and 2017, a T20 World Cup in 2009, and the Ashes series in 2005, 2013 and 2013-14. "It does make me feel satisfied," she said. "I think being the No. 1 bowler in the world was the one I wanted the most - and that did happen once upon a time!
"Those achievements and those milestones, I didn't have those in mind. They are absolutely brilliant to have, but it's the journey that you make and the person that you shape yourself to be.
"Being part of the exhilarating highs, and sometimes the lows, they are what you live for. [Those are] the moments that I used to crave having: feeling on top of the world. That's the bit that I'll miss the most."