Ryan ten Doeschate to retire at end of 2021

The Essex and Netherlands allrounder will hang up his spikes after representing the Netherlands in the 2021 Men’s T20 World Cup

Ryan ten Doeschate: Essex's man for all eras

Ryan ten Doeschate has announced he will retire at the end of 2021.

The 41-year-old Essex allrounder will hang up his spikes after representing the Netherlands in the 2021 Men’s T20 World Cup.

Joining Essex in 2003, ten Doeschate has made 554 appearances in all formats for the club, scoring 17,046 runs and taking 348 wickets.

With Essex, he has won considerable silverware, picking up back to back Pro 40 League titles in 2005 and 2006 as well as the 2008 Friends Provident Trophy in his first five years with the club.

Captaining the club between 2016 and 2019, he led Essex to Division Two promotion in his first season at the helm before picking up two County Championship titles (2017 and 2019). He won the T20 Blast in 2019 under the captaincy of Simon Harmer and the Bob Willis Trophy in 2020 after stepping down as red-ball captain.

Ten Doeschate is also a two-time Indian Premier League champion (2012 and 2014) with Kolkata Knight Riders and was named ICC Associate Player of the Year on three occasions (2008, 2010 and 2011).

^{Ryan ten Doeschate representing the Netherlands at the 2011 Cricket World Cup}

On the international stage, he has made 55 white-ball appearances for the Netherlands, scoring 2,074 runs and taking 69 wickets.

Commenting on his retirement, ten Doeschate said: "From the bottom of my heart I’d like to thank everyone who has been involved with Essex during my time at the club. It’s been the greatest professional experience to grow in this environment, to watch the organisation and the individuals within it evolve and become something that I am extremely proud to have been a part of.

"Your profession shouldn’t define you as a person, and I realise that cricket is just a sport and that Essex is just one cog in the wheel of county cricket, but I’m not ashamed to say that for 19 summers Essex has been my purpose and focus. We have all had varying degrees of satisfaction and peaks and troughs in form, but I always had the drive of giving my all for Essex.

"Coming from Cape Town to be given a chance to pursue my dream seems a million moons ago. We’ve shared some remarkable times but for me, the biggest achievement has been making a home away from home. I have a collection of memories from Chelmsford to keep me happy long into retirement.”

Club captain, Tom Westley, added: "Not only have I had the honour of sharing a changing room with him for 15 years, but I’ve also had the privilege of changing next to him for eight of them! To know that he won’t be playing for Essex again is a sad day for the club.

"I have always admired him, not only as a cricketer, who I believe has won more games for Essex than anyone else I have played with. It’s his values and qualities as a person, that means his name is alongside the greats of the club.

"I can assure you that I’m speaking on behalf of every player that has been fortunate enough to play with and share a changing room with Tendo. He has had a positive impact on all of us at some stage in his illustrious career. His selflessness as a teammate and leader is one of the leading factors to Essex’s success in the last decade."