Former Essex tempo bowler Aaron Beard hopes to discover a method to “see cricket in a special gentle” after retiring from the skilled sport on the age of solely 26.
Beard known as it a day on the finish of the county season, having taken 108 wickets in all codecs of the sport throughout his profession.
He had been contemplating his choice for a few months after changing into barely disenchanted with life on the county circuit,
“I can not thank individuals sufficient for supporting me by means of my alternative, I do know it was a shock to some individuals, however I strongly consider it is the proper choice,” Chelmsford-born Beard advised BBC Essex Sport.
He plans to play membership cricket for Upminster alongside working in building, however hopes to return to his house city sooner or later in a training capability.
“I had just a few ups and downs by means of the years of enjoying and I had a sense that there is perhaps one thing on the market for me that I’d take pleasure in a bit extra,” he added.
“I will at all times love cricket and at all times love enjoying however in my life I do not wish to go away any stone unturned and I believed it will be the proper time to go and take a look at one thing totally different.”
Beard appeared for Essex as a 15-year-old fielding substitute after they took on England in an Ashes warm-up match in 2013 and likewise bowled in observe periods with James Anderson and Stuart Broad.
His first-class debut got here three years later when he took 5 wickets in a sport in opposition to Sri Lanka and he was a part of the Essex facet that accomplished a County Championship and T20 Blast double in 2019.
Beard had a mortgage spell with Sussex two years in the past and solely performed two Championship video games for Essex this summer time because the membership relied on Jamie Porter, Sam Cook dinner and Shane Snater as their foremost seam bowling choices in red-ball cricket.
He consulted former England captain Alastair Cook dinner, who retired in 2023, and ex-Essex skipper Ryan ten Doeschate earlier than making his choice.
“I knew there was one thing not fairly proper about my enjoyment ranges of the cricket. I used to be at all times the primary one to coach and at all times the one to go away final – after which I misplaced that,” Beard mentioned.
“This can be a fully totally different state of affairs however when Alastair Cook dinner retired from worldwide cricket, he got here and performed county cricket together with his pals to take pleasure in it once more, and never have a lot expectation on him.
“I will play for Upminster once more subsequent 12 months, that is the place my foremost teaching base is as effectively. I am trying ahead to seeing cricket in a special gentle, hitting balls into the bushes and taking loads of wickets.”
