The right-hand medium pacer, who has represented England and Ireland at the international level, retires from both international and domestic cricket after 18 years.
The 36-year-old decides to hang his boots after a long career, which consisted of three Tests, 75 One-Day internationals, and 50 Twenty20 Internationals.
He made his first-class debut for Middlesex and later moved to Warwickshire where he has known for his great attributes – “he’s tall, he can bowl fast, the ball bounces from nowhere.” In his stint as a fast bowler, he managed to pick 169 international scalps across all formats of the game.
He was also a part of few famous wins for Ireland against Pakistan and Bangladesh in the 2007 World Cup, where he picked three and two wickets, respectively. His first Test wicket was also Ireland’s first in the longest format of the game when he dismissed the Pakistani batsman, Azhar Ali at Malahide in 2018.
When asked about retirement, Rankin said:
“To retire from international cricket is always a tough call, but I feel now is the right time to step away. I have put my heart and soul into playing cricket professionally since 2003 and have loved every minute of it. I will miss all the guys I played alongside the most and enjoying the wins we had along the way.”
He also had a long career in county cricket, having won the 50-over County Championship with Warwickshire twice and the T20 Blast in 2014.
After his announcement, his final coach, Graham Ford, and Rankin’s long-time teammate with Ireland, Gary Wilson were full of praise and congratulated him on his successful career.
“During my involvement with Cricket Ireland, he has been an ultimate professional, shown great courage while bowling through body niggles and put in many high impact performances. I sincerely wish him a highly successful and exciting next life chapter,”
Ford remarked.
“I had the pleasure of playing with Boyd for a number of years. He was a great man to have on your team – certainly, better to have him with you than playing against you. He deserves all the plaudits he is going to get from the cricket community right across the world, and I’d just like to congratulate him on what has been a fantastic career.”
Wilson stated.
Rankin also thanked his parents, his partner and also mentioned his fellow coaches and teammates to have helped him become the bowler he was.
Rankin’s career comes to an end with his last international game against Afghanistan in March 2020 where he managed to pick up the wicket of the Afghan all-rounder Mohammad Nabi.
