County legend Tim Murtagh to retire at end of season

The 42-year-old has taken 1,341 professional wickets, including 951 in first-class cricket, for Middlesex, Surrey and Ireland, for whom he claimed a memorable five-wicket haul against England at Lord's in 2019

Middlesex legend Tim Murtagh is to retire at the end of the season, bringing to an end a county career that has spanned more than two decades.

The 42-year-old has taken 1,341 professional wickets, including 951 in first-class cricket, for Middlesex, Surrey and Ireland, for whom he claimed a memorable five-wicket haul against England at Lord's in 2019.

Murtagh has long been fielding questions over his future, always remaining non-committal and insisting on taking it on a year-by-year basis.

Even this year, which has proven to be his last, he leads the county's red-ball bowling averages, with 22 wickets in five games at 23.50 apiece, including a 10-wicket match haul in a win over Kent, which featured the wicket of Zak Crawley twice in the game.

In the same match, he passed the figure of 1,000 wickets for Middlesex, having been by a distance the most prolific bowler on the county circuit in the 21st century.

"I've had these words mulling around in my head for around ten years," he said, "but now is the time to put them onto paper. It's with a great deal of pride and a tinge of sadness that I announce my retirement from cricket at the end of this season.

"It's finally time to hang up the speed menace boots (the irony is not lost on me) after an incredible 25 years of joy playing professional sport.

^{Murtagh's finest hour came for Ireland at Lord's (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)}

"It really has been my life and a pleasure to have been lucky enough to live out my childhood dreams for such a long time. I'll get round the people who have helped me on this journey individually in the coming months. But for now, I want to thank my parents Dom and Liz for being so supportive right from my childhood all the way through my career alongside my brother and sister.

"To my wife Karina who has been my rock for the past 15 years, none of this would have been possible without you – at times singlehandedly raising our two amazing boys while I swanned off on another cricket tour."

Murtagh studied for a degree in sport science at St Mary's University, Twickenham, before beginning his county career with Surrey, where his brother, Chris, also played.

"There's still a bit of life left in the old dog – but probably not that much," he had hinted to The Cricketer in April, and retirement at this juncture perhaps speaks to that forecast back in April. Murtagh has also acted as the club's bowling coach and is now set to join the county's coaching staff on a full-time basis.

He has been named in Middlesex's squad to face Warwickshire in the County Championship match beginning on Tuesday, with the possibility of one final hurrah.