Matthew Wade retires from the Big Bash after 119 matches and a title with Hobart

Matthew Wade has retired from the Big Bash League after 119 matches, ending a career in the tournament that began in its first season in December 2011

The 38-year-old wicketkeeper-batter confirmed on Thursday that he will not play in BBL|16, closing a Big Bash career that brought 2,978 runs at a strike rate of 142.35 across three clubs.

Nine of those seasons were spent at the Hobart Hurricanes, where he was part of the squad that won the club its first Big Bash title in BBL|14.

Wade will now concentrate on coaching. He was appointed Australia's white-ball batting coach after leaving international cricket, and that job now becomes his only one in the game.

From the first Big Bash to the last

Wade was in the competition from the beginning, playing for the Melbourne Stars when the Big Bash was rebuilt around city franchises in December 2011. He made 16 appearances for the Stars and a further 13 for the Melbourne Renegades.

He moved to Hobart for BBL|07 and stayed there for the rest of his career, finishing with 90 matches for the Hurricanes, the second-most any player has made for the club.

His time in the tournament ran to nearly 15 years, from its opening season to the one that is about to start without him.

A record that still stands in Hobart

Wade scored 2,446 runs for the Hurricanes at an average of 32.18 and a strike rate of 146.73, third on the club's all-time list and one of only three batters to pass 2,000 runs for them.

His 130 not out against the Adelaide Strikers remains the highest score any Hurricanes batter has made in the Big Bash, and was the only century of his career in the competition.

Behind the stumps in Hobart he took 41 catches and made six stumpings. Across all three clubs he finished with 19 fifties, an average of 30.38 and 70 dismissals as a wicketkeeper.

The title the club had been waiting for

The Hurricanes had gone through every previous edition of the tournament without winning it. That changed in BBL|14, the one championship of Wade's Big Bash career.

It was also the closing act of a domestic record built almost entirely in the southern states: five state titles in all, four of them Sheffield Shields won with Victoria before he moved to Tasmania.

What the club said

"Matthew has been an incredibly important figure for the Hurricanes and Tasmanian cricket over a long period of time," Cricket Tasmania general manager Salliann Beams said. "His record speaks for itself, but what doesn't always show up in the numbers is the influence he has had on the players and people around him."

Head coach Jeff Vaughan said Wade's value to a side went beyond his scoring. "'Wadey' is one of those cricketers you always wanted on your side," Vaughan said. "He competed incredibly hard every time he walked onto the field and had the ability to change a game very quickly."

A coaching career already under way

Wade retired from international cricket in October 2024, after that year's T20 World Cup, having made 225 appearances for Australia across the three formats.

He had already finished with first-class cricket by then, and moved into coaching almost immediately, joining Australia's white-ball staff as batting coach.

Retiring from the Big Bash makes that a full-time job, with no playing season to work around.

The Big Bash starts its sixteenth season without one of the players who was there for its first.

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