Bengal pacer Shib Shankar Paul retires from all forms of cricket

Bengal pacer Shiv Shankar Paul announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on Monday. Paul made his first-class debut in 2000-01 Ranji trophy match against Tripura at the Eden Gardens.

He is a strongly built bowler and hits the deck hard with his energetic bowling action. He caught the eye of everyone with his consistent performances and he was rewarded with a chance on the tour of East Africa in August 2004.

He troubled even the best of the batsmen in the opposition and impressed everyone with his composure and workhorse attitude, which was lacking from most of the cricketers. And that ended up with a call-up into Indian national team for a Test match against Australia at Mumbai, in 2004-05.

“Every good thing must come to an end. I have decided to quit all forms of cricket,” the 34-year old paul told the reporters at Kolkata.

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When asked about his plans after retirement, he said that he is looking forward to taking up coaching and also planning to open a pace bowling coaching academy. “I want to want to go into coaching. I am also planning to open an academy for pacers,” he said.

Sourav Ganguly and different Bengal cricketers with the likes of Manoj Tiwari and Wriddhiman Saha were present at the event.

He also credited for 220 wickets in first-class matches and 86 wickets from List A matches from 61 matches in both the formats. He also picked up 12 wickets from 8 Twenty20 matches at an exceptional economy rate of 5.90.