West In­dies fast bowler Shan­non Gabriel has of­fi­cial­ly an­nounced his re­tire­ment from in­ter­na­tion­al crick­et, con­clud­ing a ca­reer that spanned over 12 years at the high­est lev­el of the sport.

In a heart­felt mes­sage shared on In­sta­gram on Wednes­day, Gabriel re­flect­ed on his jour­ney. “For the past 12 years, I have ded­i­cat­ed my­self to play­ing in­ter­na­tion­al crick­et for the West In­dies,” he wrote. “Play­ing this beloved game at the high­est lev­el has brought me im­mense joy, but as the say­ing goes, all good things must come to an end. To­day, I am an­nounc­ing my re­tire­ment from in­ter­na­tion­al crick­et.”

Gabriel’s ca­reer has been marked by sig­nif­i­cant achieve­ments, in­clud­ing 59 Test match­es, 25 One-Day In­ter­na­tion­als (ODIs), and two T20 In­ter­na­tion­als (T20Is), in which he amassed a to­tal of 202 wick­ets. The 36-year-old last rep­re­sent­ed the West In­dies in Ju­ly 2023 but has re­mained ac­tive in do­mes­tic crick­et, con­tin­u­ing to play for Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Ex­press­ing his grat­i­tude, Gabriel said, “First­ly, I would like to thank God for the nu­mer­ous bless­ings and op­por­tu­ni­ties my fam­i­ly and I have re­ceived dur­ing my time play­ing for the West In­dies. Sec­ond­ly, I want to ex­tend my heart­felt thanks to Crick­et West In­dies ad­min­is­tra­tors, coach­es, and staff mem­bers. Words can­not ad­e­quate­ly con­vey the ap­pre­ci­a­tion I have for your hard work and sup­port over the years.”

He al­so paid trib­ute to his team­mates and those who sup­port­ed him through­out his ca­reer, stat­ing, “Last but not least, I am grate­ful to my team­mates and all those who have stood by me and sup­port­ed me along the way. You have made my jour­ney to the top tru­ly spe­cial.”

Look­ing ahead, Gabriel says he plans to con­tin­ue his in­volve­ment in crick­et.

“Mov­ing for­ward, I plan to con­tin­ue rep­re­sent­ing my coun­try (Trinidad and To­ba­go), club, and fran­chise teams around the world with the same love and pas­sion I have shown through­out my ca­reer,” he con­clud­ed.

CMC