At the age of 39, Dean Elgar has declared his retirement from professional cricket. As he gets ready for the latter stretch of his Essex County Cricket season, the former South Africa Test skipper made the statement. After two stints at Surrey, Elgar signed a three-year contract with Essex and has appeared in all nine County Championship games in 2026.
Elgar left the game immediately following the County Championship season, citing personal and family reasons. Starting on Thursday, August 27, he will play his final five County Championship games at home against Surrey at Chelmsford. Essex is presently ranked seventh in Division One.
He said, “I feel it’s the right time for me now. I’m not getting any younger, 39 years old, and I’ve got a lot of things going on back home with regards to a young but growing-up-very-quickly family. It’s the right time for me now to be present at home and be there for my partner and my kids. It’s been a great journey so far. It’s not done yet, but at the end of the season, I will be retiring.”
Elgar added, “I was fortunate enough to represent my country for twelve years and then the responsibility of captaining [South Africa] – that’s one of the proudest moments of my career. If you look back at the journey of where I have come from, I don’t think many people would have given me a lot of hope of having a career [in cricket], let alone one that spans over two decades.”
Elgar will leave the game as one of the most decorated South African cricket players in history after retiring from international competition at the end of 2023. During his 12-year international career, Elgar—who is widely regarded as one of the greatest openers of his generation—captained his nation 13 times and amassed over 5,000 Test runs at an average of 37.65, including 14 hundreds and 23 fifties. In 2017, he scored his highest score of 199 against Bangladesh.
Elgar proved he was still a good opening hitter during the 2026 County Championship season. In nine games, he amassed 436 runs, including two noteworthy innings against Surrey at The Oval earlier in the season in which he hit 92 and an undefeated 107. Even in the later years of his career, his performances demonstrated his worth to the Essex team.
