Peter Trego announces retirement from professional cricket

Peter Trego has called time on his playing career at the age of 40 after announcing his retirement from the professional game with immediate effect.

Best known as a swashbuckling white-ball batter during his long-term association with Somerset, Trego also enjoyed spells with Middlesex, Kent and, most recently, Nottinghamshire, and at his peak was a hugely effective swing bowler in four-day cricket.

Trego was among the best uncapped white-ball players of his generation in English cricket, playing 11 games for the Lions in 2010, but despite some standout inidividual performances during those appearances, he never quite managed to graduate to further honours.

"Always a tough reality for any sportsman but at 40 I'm very proud of what I've achieved and more importantly the people I've met along the way," Trego tweeted on Friday. "Cricket really is full of great, great people."

Trego, born and bred in Weston-super-Mare, made his Somerset debut in 2000 but despite his early promise which saw him represent England Under-19s, he struggled to nail down a regular first-team spot in the early years of his career and drifted out of the professional game, playing semi-pro football as a goalkeeper and trialling at several different counties.

But after his return to Somerset in 2006, he became one of the leading allrounders on the county circuit, thumping several eye-catching hundreds in all formats, picking up key scalps with the ball and prowling on the boundary rope as an outfielder with cat-like reflexes. He spent his winters playing in New Zealand, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, as well as representing England in the Hong Kong Sixes.

Trego left Somerset at the end of the 2019 season after his losing his place in their Championship side and then slipping out of the Blast team and so it came as something of a surprise when Nottinghamshire offered him a two-year deal as a senior player.

He played 23 games across formats during his two seasons with the club, with the clear highlight his innings of 31 off 21 balls in the 2020 Blast final. It was his only innings of the competition as he came into the side following Chris Nash's injury in the semi-final, and led a recovery from 19 for 3 to take Notts to the title.

"Coming here for the last couple of years has been amazing," Trego said in a Nottinghamshire statement. "To sign for a club and win a trophy in your first season, even though I only added the icing to that cake, I will always look on that day proudly.

"I suppose the old adage is 'leave a place in a better place than you found it' and I really feel like I'm departing a squad that has the ability to compete in all three formats and that's something to be proud of. The talent has always been there during the rebuilding process but now there's a bit of maturity and hardiness to the group and the results are speaking for themselves."

Trego retires after more than 200 first-team appearances in each format, with 9644 runs and 395 wickets in first-class cricket, 5057 runs and 173 wickets in List A games and 4127 runs and 78 wickets in his T20 career. He has already started a media career with work as a commentator for Sky and the BBC and plays golf to a high level, taking part in the regional qualifiers for The Open this year.