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Eoin Morgan
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Eoin Morgan: The retirement of a cricket trailblazer

Eoin Morgan, the man who transformed England's one-day team from whipping boys to world beaters, has retired from all cricket at the age of 36.

Eight months after retiring from the international arena, the Irish-born former England captain had carried on playing one-day cricket around the world.

But now, the 2019 World Cup-winning captain, has called it a day across all formats and leaves a proud legacy.

"Right time to step away" says ex-England skipper

Less than a year after vacating the international stage it was probably only a matter of time before Morgan put away his bat for good.

Having travelled the world with England and won the biggest trophies on the biggest stages, he was going to find it difficult to motivate himself for events like the Hundred and the Abu Dhabi T10.

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The statement illustrated that he knew this was the right time to walk away.

"It is with great pride that I am announcing my retirement from all forms of cricket," he said. "After much deliberation, I believe that now is the right time to step away from the game that has given me so much over the years.

"I will undoubtedly miss the adventure and challenges of playing professional cricket.

"Although I am calling time on my playing career, I will still be involved in the game, working alongside broadcasters at international and franchise tournaments as a commentator and pundit. I am sincerely looking forward to what the future holds."

Ireland youngster who blossomed into one of England's great leaders

And Morgan departs the game as one of the most influential figures in transforming the white-ball fortunes of England.

Not a bad accolade for a man who didn't even start his career wearing the Three Lions having been born in Dublin.

He played youth cricket for Middlesex and Ireland, starred for his country of birth at two Under-19 World Cups and was still only 19 when he made his ODI debut against Scotland.

In all Morgan played 23 one-day internationals for Ireland before, taking advantage of the fact that his mother is English, he switched allegiances to England, initially to play Test cricket.

And while he would play five-dayers for his adopted country - 16 times in total - it quickly became clear his strength lay on the limited-overs stage.

Lord's the icing on a stunning journey

He made his 50-over and T20 debuts for England in 2009 and within a few months was part of the T20 World Cup-winning side in the West Indies, top-scoring in group games against the hosts and Ireland.

As well as his batting prowess he was always winning plaudits whenever he stepped in to captain the side and it surprised no-one when in 2015 he replaced Alastair Cook as skipper of the one-day side.

Ironically, his first major tournament with the armband could not have gone any worse with heavy defeats at the hands of hosts Australia and New Zealand plus humiliation at the hands of Bangladesh as they exited at the group stage.

The revival, however, was astonishing given how exposed they had looked in Australia.

A year later they had reached the T20 World Cup final, reached the 2017 Champions Trophy semis and then came the icing on the cake, that never-to-be-forgotten afternoon at Lord's in July 2019 when England pipped New Zealand in a super over to win the World Cup for the first time.

When he retired in June last year he did so having captained England in a record 126 ODIs and 72 T20s and he remains their leading run-scorer in one-day cricket with 6,957 runs.

Morgan - the man who changed the way a nation played its cricket

As a double World Cup winner, Morgan will rightly be remembered as one of England's best one-day batters of this generation.

And the way he led his country at the World Cup final in 2019, he'll go down as one of its finest captains, too.

But his legacy runs deeper than that. With the support of key figures at the ECB, Morgan effectively reshaped the way England thought about and played their one-day cricket, shifting from a risk-adverse approach which had been the old model into something more fearless and swashbuckling.

The one-day set-up he bequeathed Jos Buttler is now among the finest and most exciting in the world and even the Test team plays in a style whose roots can be found in the way Morgan's men attacked the 50-over game.

"I have cherished every moment," signed off Morgan, and with good reason. It must have been an absolute blast. It was certainly fun watching.

England are 3/1 to Win World Cup 2023 Outright, while India can be backed at 11/5 and Australia at 4/1.

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