Stuart Broad has made it clear he has no regrets about retiring from cricket.
The England icon walked away from the sport earlier this year after a thrilling 2-2 Ashes series draw against Australia.
Broad helped the Three Lions come from 2-0 down to level the series and took the final two wickets to ensure they avoid defeat on home soil.
It was a fairytale ending for the 37-year-old, who is now adjusting to life away from the sport.
Stuart Broad has no regrets over retiring from cricket
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And Broad, speaking to Sky Sports, has revealed he doesn’t have any regrets about walking away from cricket.
“I do feel within myself that I could have played for another couple of years but I wanted to finish at the top, finish in an England shirt and to be able to control that myself,” he said.
“I had to try and go at the right time.
“I have had no regrets yet which I think tells me in my gut that it was the right decision.
“Because my team-mates have not walked onto the field in their whites with the England cap on, I have not had a moment of realisation like, ‘wow, I won’t ever do that again’.
“Every player I have spoken to, from different eras, has had that one moment of ‘I’m not a professional cricketer any more’.
“Whether that comes when England go to India or when Nottinghamshire take the field in April at Trent Bridge, I’m not sure, [but] I couldn’t have finished in a better way.
“I loved every moment of walking off the field at The Oval, beating Australia in an Ashes Test.
“If I played for another 10 years, I would never have been able to repeat that finish. I have no regrets about finishing.
“To have that emotion of running on for my final spell with people knowing it was my last-ever session of cricket gave me emotions that will live with me forever.
“Winning the Test was the biggest thing for me – the emotion of the crowd and winning the game.
“It would have been devastating for me to walk off for the final time having lost a Test to the Aussies.
“Walking off with the boxes behind us, seeing my mum, my dad, [partner] Mollie, [daughter] Annabella and friends, it just felt perfect.”
While Broad got the ending he hoped for, there was controversy during the last Ashes series.
Jonny Bairstow was run out in awkward circumstances at Lord’s, with Alex Carey catching him off guard.
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Stuart Broad got the retirement he dreamed of during the recent Ashes series
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And Broad admits that he was livid by Bairstow’s controversial dismissal.
“That particular moment, in all honesty, I saw red mist for 10 minutes,” he said.
“I class myself, particularly in my 30s, as being really mentally strong. I had a lot of routines and techniques that looked after me.
“But I was frustrated with that dismissal. One of our great players out in that way when it felt… he wasn’t trying to gain an advantage so it felt a really strange dismissal.
“I saw red mist and couldn’t control myself for 10 minutes.
Stuart Broad was enraged by Jonny Bairstow’s controversial Ashes dismissal back in the summer
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“I completely forgot there were TV cameras, microphones. Anything with a green cap on, I was just targeting, having a go at.
“After about 10 minutes, Stokesy [Ben Stokes] came to me in the middle and said, ‘are you alright?’ I said, ‘yeah, I just got a bit emotional, the crowd were revving me up’.
“I said, ‘what do you want me to do?’ He said, ‘keep going verbally at the Aussies, they are looking at the ground, they have lost their body language, lost their plan, they are bowling rubbish to me’.
“So, after 10 minutes of red mist and petulantly going ‘in’ with my bat, it then became a targeted thing and me deliberately trying to get under their skin and take their mind away from the plan. We lost by 43 runs. Could Jonny have got 40-odd runs?
“It galvanised us, it galvanised our fans. It is what Ashes cricket is about. It had edge to it.”
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