England cricketers hail Strauss as a ‘great leader’

London: Players and pundits have paid tribute to Andrew Strauss, who captained England for 50 Tests, describing him as a “great leader” after he announced his retirement from cricket.

Strauss is among one of nine England batsmen to have scored 7,000 runs or more in Tests - 7037 at an average of 40.91 in 100 Tests. Reacting to the news on Twitter, Stuart Broad wrote: “Awesome guy, great leader, dependable batsman and a solid 1 slip catcher. Cheers Straussy you``ll be playing scratch golf within a year." Eoin Morgan wrote: "Sad news that Straussy is retiring but I would like to congratulate him on an amazing career. A great leader and a pleasure to play with!” Paul Collingwood wrote: “Andrew Strauss should be very proud what he``s done for English cricket and everything he``s achieved, great team man and great leader." Matthew Hoggard said: “I wish him all the best for the future,” James Anderson wrote: “Really sad to hear Straussy has called it a day. He``s done so much for this England team not just as captain but also as a player… He will be missed but he hands over to a very fine replacement in Alastair Cook. Best of luck to Cooky and to Straussy in his future.” Geoffrey Boycott said the pressure of captaincy, with the extra workload of dealing with the media and meetings with selectors, had clearly taken its toll. He said: “I think a lot of people don``t realise that modern day captaining in international cricket is more difficult than in the past, they have so many media obligations. He``s always on call. If his mind is scrambled and tired he cannot bat. You bat with your brain and his brain is tired.” Michael Atherton said: “He was a very good captain held in very hard regard by his team, and that is critical. He led in a manner that has gone down well with the public at large.” ANI