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Gough to retire at end of season

category: Cricket

26.05.2008 20:26

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He was still in two minds about whether this season would be his last as recently as six weeks ago.

"If my passion at the end of the season is like it is now, I may change my mind. I think it's just a case of wait and see if I am being totally honest," he told BBC Leeds.

"I've just got to see how this season goes. I love playing cricket, I love what I do.

"At some point I have to say 'not anymore' but, if Yorkshire have a good season and so do I, then you never know."

But the emergence of talented youngsters like Ben Sanderson and Oliver Hannon-Dalby, who have both played for the first team recently, has helped persuade Gough that the time will be right for him to go at the end of the summer.

With a history of knee problems behind him, Gough admitted he was finding it harder to play four-day Championship cricket.



"When Hoggy [Matthew Hoggard] gets back from his broken thumb it will make selection a little bit easier, but at the moment we are short of experienced bowlers," he said.

"We have brought in two young pacemen over the past fortnight and there is plenty of talent at the club, but our youngsters are not yet quite ready for regular cricket."

Gough achieved celebrity status off the field when he won the BBC's Celebrity Come Dancing competition in 2005, but insisted his decision to quit was "nothing to do with the entertainment business".

He added: "I will still enjoy playing the game and will probably turn out for a pub team or something like that."





As well as regular live reports of all of Yorkshire's matches on BBC Radio Leeds, this season you can also hear ball-by-ball commentary through the station's website bbc.co.uk/leeds.

Original text is here

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