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Jersey Retirement In Cricket: Everyone knows that it is not common to retire a player's jersey number in cricket. While many clubs in sports like football and basketball retire the numbers of great players to honor them, there is no set ICC rule for retiring jersey numbers in international cricket. This is why the decision to remove a number from use can be taken by the concerned cricket board, team or franchise at its own level.

In India, this has been seen in the case of Sachin Tendulkar's number-10 and MS Dhoni's number-7. Now Caribbean Premier League champion franchise Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) has announced that they will retire Dwayne Bravo's number 47 jersey. This honor is being given to him for his outstanding contribution to the team, the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and cricket in Trinidad and Tobago. So let us know about retiring jersey in this article…

Does ICC allow jersey numbers to be retired?

First of all, it is important to understand that ICC has not made any such rule that after the retirement of a great player, his jersey number must be retired forever. That means it is not mandatory to retire the jersey number in international cricket.

Players usually have the facility to choose the number of their choice from the available numbers. Therefore, if a cricket board decides not to reuse a number, it is that board's own policy or tradition, and not an ICC mandated provision. In 2017, a BCCI official had also clarified that instead of stopping a team from retiring the jersey number, the ICC sets general rules regarding the use of the number.

What does retiring jersey numbers mean?

Retiring a number simply means that that number will not be given to any other player in future. For example, if a board has retired number-7, then any player making his debut in the team in future cannot choose number-7. This is a symbolic way of honoring the contribution of that great player. However, in cricket it is sometimes called 'Unofficial Retirement', because there is no such formal retirement system from the ICC.

Sachin Tendulkar retired number-10

The most talked about case of retiring jersey number in India is that of Sachin Tendulkar's number-10. Sachin retired from international cricket in 2013. After this, no one wore number 10 in the Indian team for almost four years. But in 2017, Shardul Thakur wore number 10 in his ODI debut against Sri Lanka. After this he had to face a lot of criticism and trolling on social media. Thakur later told that he had chosen this number for reasons to numerology.

After this, BCCI removed number 10 from the list of unofficial numbers available for international matches. This information came to light in November 2017 and number 10 started being associated with Sachin Tendulkar.

MS Dhoni's number-7 also retired

Another big example in India is MS Dhoni's number-7. In December 2023, BCCI decided not to keep number-7 available for the Indian team in honor of Dhoni's contribution. BCCI Vice President Rajiv Shukla had said that number 7 was retired to honor Dhoni's contribution to Indian cricket. After this, Indian players were not allowed to choose this number.

In this way, number-10 and number-7 are the two most prominent jersey numbers in Indian cricket at present, which have been kept out of use in honor of great players.

Can every great player's jersey be retired?

Now if the question is coming in your mind whether any player's jersey can be retired. So the answer is no. Since, just being a great player does not in itself make it a rule to retire the jersey number. For this the concerned cricket board has to take a decision. Aspects like the player's contribution to the team, his achievements, popularity and the identity associated with that number can be important. This means that as soon as a player retires, his jersey does not automatically retire.

Is there a set time to retire jersey numbers?

There is no fixed time limit that the jersey number can be retired only after one year, five years or ten years of the player's retirement. In India's example, number 10 was unofficially removed about four years after Sachin's retirement, while number 7 was removed from the available numbers about three years after Dhoni's retirement. It is clear from this that this decision depends on the policy of the board and the contribution of the player rather than any fixed timeline.

Can't the retired number be used in domestic cricket also?

This also completely depends on the rules of the respective board or competition. In India, number-10 and number-7 have not been made available in the context of the Indian international team. This should not be considered a ban imposed by ICC for cricket around the world. This means that if India has removed a number for the international team, it does not mean that players from any other country in the world cannot wear that number. Any player from another country can wear that number.

How is cricket different from other sports in the world?

There is a strong tradition of retiring jerseys at the club level in football and basketball. To honor a great player, his number can be removed forever. However, this system is not mandatory in cricket. The decision to retire a number in international cricket is taken by the cricket board at its own level. This is the reason why in one country a number can be removed forever, while in another country the same number can be given to another player.