PIETERMARITZBURG: Former Australian captain Kim Hughes has announced his retirement from first “class cricket and bowed out of a two year playing stint in South Africa after Natal Province dropped him in ‘mid-season.
“I was simply not given a fair goby Natal” Hughes 37 said. “I “was not even considered good enough for the ‘B’ team… They just wrote me off.”
He said the Natal cricket ‘association had agreed to release him from the contract and he would return to his home town of Perth in Western Australia on Monday.
Association president Julian Thomion said he knew Hughes was planning to go home before the end of the season but added there could still be a place for him in Natal cricket.
Hughes who has 26 first class centuries to his credit captained Natal in 1989-90 and during the first weeks of the current 1990-91 season before being dropped a month ago
“I have always been a principled person and even went into a court battle over my principles.” Hughes told the South African Press Association referring to his struggle for the right to continue playing cricket in Australia after leading rebel tours to South Africa.
Being dropped was part of being an athlete he said. “I was determined to force my way back and have worked hard at my game. But it is clear now that I’m of no value to Natal cricket”
Hughes said the “time had arrived for him to spend more time with his wife’ and four young children who had recently returned to Perth. He would consider playing club cricket in Perth and perhaps eventually enter cricket administration.
He played in 70 Tests for ‘Australia’ between 1978 and 1983 scoring 4415 Tests run at an average of 37,41 including nine centuries against West Indies Pakistan and England and India.
His highest Test score was 213 at Adelaide during India’s 1980-81 tour.
His most memorable moment came in the Centenary Test against England at Lord’s in 1980 when he scored 117 and 84.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 15, 1991
