Alex Doolan, who featured in four Tests for Australia, has announced his retirement from first-class cricket. He played 118 first-class games and scored 6824 runs while also featuring in 42 List A matches (1336 runs) and 27 T20 games (409 runs).Doolan made his Test debut in 2014 against South Africa at Centurion and scored a very impressive 89 in the second inning. He went on to play the next two Tests before his final Test - against Pakistan later that year - in Dubai. The 35-year-old leaves the game as Tasmania's eighth highest run-scorer in Sheffield Shield cricket. "It wasn't tough at all really," Doolan said. "I had two weeks off over Christmas while the Big Bash was going on, and it was just a bit too good to refuse, so I made the call then and I've been very comfortable with it ever since."
"I've probably come into the last three or four seasons thinking maybe [it will be my last] you just never know. But selection definitely didn't sway it at all. Once you've reached over 30 and you're no longer in the frame to play at the highest level you're always on borrowed time a little bit."I thought I was contributing really well to the team but the team has also progressed to a point now where there are a lot of young guys coming through, filling those spaces and looking to take the next step as well, so you can't play forever, and sometimes it's just time to get out of the way and let the next crop come through."Doolan made his first-class debut and is only the eighth player to feature in 100 first-class matches for the side after Jamie Cox, Michael Di Venuto, George Bailey, Dan Marsh and Ricky Ponting.
