Former South African batter Heinrich Klaasen has revealed that retiring from international cricket has given him more freedom to manage his career. Speaking on JioStar, the wicketkeeper-batter said that the decision allows him to recover, reset, and work on his game between franchise tournaments.
Klaasen is currently representing the Manchester Super Giants in the ongoing edition of The Hundred tournament. His team has reached the final of the Men's Hundred competition, where they are scheduled to play against the Trent Rockets on Sunday to compete for the prestigious championship title.
Retiring From International Cricket Gave Me Freedom - Heinrich Klaasen
Heinrich Klaasen stated that retiring from international cricket has helped him manage his physical and mental preparation. He said that the longer breaks between franchise competitions give him enough time to prepare his body for the next tournament.
"Retiring from international cricket gave me the freedom to have a break in between these competitions. For the majority of these competitions, I've got about a month, a month and a half, or two months off in between," Klaasen said.
"So that gives me enough time to just reset, take everything in, work on the things that need to be worked on, and just get the body ready for the next tournament."
Heinrich Klaasen Targets More Trophies in Franchise Cricket
Heinrich Klaasen also admitted that winning trophies has been difficult during his recent franchise career. He said that his main goal is to maintain his standards despite playing fewer matches than he did during his international career.
"Winning trophies is one goal. It has been a lean run on the trophies, so the personal goal is to get into, and get the team into positions to win trophies. Then, obviously, a big challenge now, playing less cricket, is to keep the quality of cricket up."
"I had a good IPL (624 runs in 15 innings with six fifties); I have had a good start to The Hundred, it was a little bit silent in the middle, but the key was to get some runs under the belt and keep my standard up to what it normally is," he said.
Klaasen has played seven innings for Manchester Super Giants in The Hundred this season, scoring 166 runs at an average of 23.71 and a strike rate of 182.41, including two half-centuries.
Heinrich Klaasen's International Career and Numbers
Heinrich Klaasen retired from international cricket last year after representing South Africa across all three formats. He made his ODI debut against India in Cape Town in 2018 and played his first T20I on the same tour in Johannesburg.
The wicketkeeper batter made his Test debut against India in Ranchi in 2019. The attacking wicketkeeper-batter went on to play four Tests, 60 ODIs and 58 T20Is for South Africa before stepping away from international cricket.
Klaasen scored 104 runs in Tests and enjoyed much greater success in ODIs, where he made 2,141 runs at an average of 43.69 and a strike rate of 117.05, scoring four centuries and 11 half-centuries in the format.
In T20Is, Klaasen finished with 1,000 runs at an average of 23.25 and a strike rate of 141.84. He also scored five half-centuries, before choosing to focus on franchise cricket.
