Melbourne: Prolific Australian middle order batsman Brad Hodge has decided to retire from first-class cricket at the end of this year. He will, however, continue to play in the Twenty20 and one-day formats of the game.

Hodge, who is turning 35 this month, said that he will be appearing in two more Sheffield Shield games before quitting right after Christmas so that he could spend more time with his family.

“After a number of years weighing up cricket versus family, I reckon family might have won this battle,” Hodge told the Herald Sun. “I guess it came down to lack of opportunity to play Test cricket again. I was just a fill-in for Ricky Ponting if something went wrong. I guess that wasn’t enough of an excuse for me.”

Hodge also said he is hoping that his decision to continue playing the shorter formats of the game will come as a boost to his chances of playing in Australia’s T20 World Cup campaign next year. Hodge, who is one of the most prolific and experienced T20 players in the world, will also continue playing for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League.

“In a way it’s a way to lengthen my career rather than shorten it,” Hodge said. “It’s my last-ditch effort to make the Australian World Twenty20 side.”

Hodge, who averages an astounding 102.00 from the two Sheffield Shield matches he’s played this season, said his wife, Megan’s, recurring health issues and the desire to spend more time with his children – his three-year-old son Jesse and four-month-old daughter Sophie – had become more important for him than playing Shield cricket with no prospect of higher honours than what he has already achieved.

“From a cricket perspective I started thinking, ‘How did Robert Harvey keep going all that time?’” Hodge said. “I was struggling to find reasons as to why I wanted to play. I’ve always wanted to play Test cricket for as long as I can. But what’s the difference if I get one more Test now? I want to play 30 or more, but that’s not going to happen. In my own mind I just didn’t want to go through it any more. To be honest, I struggled in the contest. The passion to play is not there anymore. I played [first-class cricket] so I could play for Australia, so I reached the point where I was struggling to work out the reasons why I was still playing.”

Hodge played six Test matches for Australia, the most recent being on last year’s tour of the West Indies, and he scored 503 runs at 55.88 including a double hundred against South Africa in 2005. In 25 one-day international appearances, he has made 575 runs at 30.26.

Considered one of Australian cricket’s most consistent run-getters, Hodge’s first-class career for Victoria has been nothing short of phenomenal. He has amassed a total of 11,278 runs at 47.39. He also had stints with Durham, Leicestershire and Lancashire in the county circuit and overall his first-class run tally is 17,012 at 48.88.

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