Moeen Ali to skip Hundred as part of domestic retirement with his decision coming before the retentions for 2025.
Moeen Ali intends to retire from English domestic cricket after the T20 Blast and will skip the Hundred in 2025.
Since declaring his international retirement in September, the 37-year-old Moeen has continued to compete on the franchise circuit. Since the ECB’s No-Objection Certificates (NOCs) rules would otherwise restrict his movement during the English summer, his choice to leave English cricket will allow him to pursue other chances abroad as he enters the latter stages of his career.
Moeen, who is currently in the third and penultimate year of his Warwickshire contract, has chosen to skip the Hundred and will expedite his transition into coaching this year by taking on a player-coach role with Birmingham Bears during the T20 Blast. Whether he will be available for the September knockout stages, should the Bears qualify, is still up in the air.
Moeen will not be playing for the Birmingham Phoenix in 2025, despite having captained them over the first four seasons of the Hundred. In order to retain up to ten players in both the men’s and women’s championships at a mutually agreed-upon salary band, the eight hundred teams had until 1pm on Monday to complete their retentions for 2025.
Because of the ECB’s strict attitude on NOCs, which is intended to prevent players from picking and choosing which leagues they play in during the English summer, Moeen is joining his long-time England teammate Alex Hales in missing the Hundred this year. After declaring his retirement from red-ball cricket prior to this season, Hampshire skipper James Vince recently discussed the position in an interview.
Hales announced last week that he has signed with the Knight Riders teams in the Caribbean Premier League and Major League Cricket, and would not be playing at Trent Bridge this season. After playing for the Guyana Amazon Warriors in the CPL and the first-ever Global Super League the previous season, Moeen’s choice may allow him to rejoin the team in mid-August.
“I’m still passionate about the game and want to play as much as I can. I still love playing. I still have passion for the game and I love being in a team environment. “I also enjoy talking to players about cricket, the tactics, and I think that’ll help me move smoothly into coaching after my playing days are over.
“I came back to Warwickshire with an aim of trying to help them win the Blast and I still want to play a role this year. I’ll be available to play throughout the Blast group games, and would love to be involved as a player-coach.”