At 34, Alex Gidman, a long time cricket player is forced to retire from the sport he so much loved due to an injury he sustained in his left index finger. Alex was injured towards the end of the last season during a pre-match drill at Durhama.

As last resort, a joint replacement surgery was opted for when he could not flex the joint. The recovery form this surgery, however, did not go as planned. It was to take two weeks, unfortunately, according to Mike Hayton, a specialist, Gidman will not be able to reach the fitness levels required to play professionally.

Gidman is a former captain of Gloucestershire. He played for this team for over a decade after which he signed a two year contract with Worcestershire where he was a batsman for 18 months prior to his injury.

In his career he made 11,622 first-class runs, 4473 in one day cricket and 1448 in T20 alongside 103 first-class wickets and 71 in list A. In 2014 he scored 1278 runs at 45.64 including his career best 264 making this his most prolific first-class season. He then made his move to Worcestershire.

At Worcestershire he struggled with his bat at New Road County. It is so sad that he did not get to play Durham at Chester-Le-Street.

Gidman said, “Obviously my manyyears at Gloucestershire included the majority of my success but I have really enjoyed the last 18 months meeting some fantastic people at Worcestershire. I can’t thank the many coaches, team-mates and supporters enough. It is my wish for everyone whom we have played with to have the best of luck in 2016 and more years to come.”

Steve Rhodes, director of cricket at Worcestershire had this to say, “On behalf of all the players and coaches, we are extremely disappointed for Alex”.