<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">Hashim Amla ended his 22-year playing career on Wednesday, with his legacy secure as one of South Africa's all-time cricketing greats.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">English county Surrey announced they had been informed by Amla, 39, that he would not be returning as a player this year after helping the side to win the English county championship in 2022.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Surrey's director of cricket Alec Stewart lauded Amla for his "phenomenal career".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He will quite rightly go down as a great of the game. Hashim is a fantastic cricketer and a wonderful person... Everyone at Surrey wishes him the best in the future," Stewart said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Amla was a key member of one of South Africa's most powerful teams when they clinched the Test championship mace with a series win in England in 2012.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Batting in a line-up which included captain Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers, Amla made a South African record 311 not out in the first Test at The Oval in London. It remains South Africa's only triple century in Tests.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was one of Amla's 28 centuries in a 124-match Test career during which he scored 9,282 runs at an average of 46.64.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He had an even better average in one-day internationals, hitting 27 centuries in 181 matches and scoring 8,113 runs at 49.46.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- Stylish -</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Amla spent much of his Test career batting at number three but opened the batting in one-day games, setting records for reaching each thousand-run milestone between 2,000 and 7,000 in the fewest innings.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He made his first-class debut for a Kwa-Zulu-Natal team, against the touring England team, as a 16-year-old in December 1999 and made his Test debut against India in Kolkata five years later.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He struggled at the start of his Test career and was criticised for a notably angled backlift.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He made what he described as minor adjustments to his technique and became one of the most stylish players in world cricket with his fluent cover driving and wristy leg-side strokes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Amla captained South Africa in 14 Tests but never seemed fully at ease in the role and resigned midway through a series against England in 2015/16 after scoring a double century in a high-scoring draw at Newlands in Cape Town.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He retired from international cricket after the 2019 Cricket World Cup and did not play in South African domestic cricket after the 2018/19 season.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But he continued to be a prolific run-scorer for Surrey, scoring 1,712 runs at an average of 48.91 in his last two seasons.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Amla is currently a batting consultant with the MI Cape Town franchise in the SA20 league. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>