West Indies legend Michael Holding announces commentary retirement

Former West Indies cricket legend Michael Holding has announced his retirement as a cricket commentator. Holding has been one of the most influential and widely recognized voices in cricket but hinted to retire as a professional commentator quite a few times over the last year.

The 66-year-old, who was monikered ‘Whispering Death’ during his playing days for his lethal bowling exploits, has served for Sky Sports for over 20 years as a commentator broadcaster. However, with age catching up and the increasingly busy cricketing schedules, Holding has decided to bid goodbye to his second innings, with 2021 being his last year in the commentary box.

Holding, who represented West Indies in 60 Tests and 102 ODIs and has 391 international wickets under his name, stated that he feels himself to be extremely lucky when he looks back at his career, while he also opened up on the public opinion regarding his role as a commentator on a BBC podcast.

“In the Caribbean, I’ve been called biased before: ‘He doesn’t like Trinidad, he doesn’t like people from Antigua, he doesn’t like no one from Guyana’, Holding said. “After a while, although these people don’t like what I say, they respect what I am saying. So, I don’t worry much about that [public opinion].”

Holding was contemplating his retirement since April this year when he revealed about being unsure regarding his commentary future. “I am not too sure how much further than 2020 I will be going with commentary. I cannot see myself going much further down the road at my age. I am 66 years old now, I am not 36, 46 or 56,” he had said on a radio talk show.

“I told [ Sky] that I could not commit to more than a year at a time. If this year gets totally destroyed, I might have to think about 2021 because I can’t just walk away from Sky, a company that has done so much good for me,” he had stated.

Holding, who bid adieu to international cricket in 1987, garnered immense respect worldwide for his famous monologue on racism in sport and society at large in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death.