Hampshire bowler Chris Wood retires from red ball cricket

Chris Wood celebrates a List A wicket for Hampshire. Picture: Dave Vokes/LMI Photography

The 29-year-old will only feature in white-ball matches after deciding to call time on his first-class career ahead of the 2020 season.

Wood, a Hampshire Academy product, has made 243 appearances across all formats since his debut in 2009.

The left-armer has been a key white-ball contributor in that time, featuring prominently in Hampshire’s limited-overs double in 2012 as well as the Royal London One-Day Cup triumph in 2018.

With 131 wickets, Wood is also the county’s all-time leading wicket-taker in T20 cricket. He has appeared in 121 matches - the fourth highest for Hampshire.

In all, the Basingstoke-born player has made 200 limited-overs appearances for Hampshire, claiming his 131 wickets at 25.97 in T20 matches, whilst totalling 106 wickets at 27.96 in List A games.

But Championship appearances have been sparse in recent times. Since the start of the 2014 season, he has only racked up 10 outings in six seasons. In one of those - against Kent at Canterbury in the 2014 Division 2 title-winning season - he returned his Championship career best haul of 5-39.

Wood didn't make a single Championship appearance in 2019 or 2017, and managed three in 2018.

‘I’ve been desperate to play red-ball cricket, but in recent years every time I get up and running my body seems to hold me back, and this has been the case since having two knee operations over the last few seasons,’ Wood explained.

‘When I play red-ball cricket, I feel I’m good enough to contribute to the team but my body just hasn’t allowed me to bowl 30 to 40 overs each week and in consecutive games.

‘I’ve been mulling it over for some time and now feels like the right time to finally make this decision.

‘Concentrating solely on white-ball cricket and trying to get the most of my career, playing the formats that I’m more comfortable with and have had more success in, feels like it makes sense.

‘I’m looking forward to being able to focus all my training overs on improving my skills as a white-ball bowler, which will hopefully help me to continue contributing to the club’s limited-overs success in the years to come.’