Michael Holding, the feared tear-away fast bowler turned respected cricket commentator has announced his retirement from the commentary booth.

A member of the Sky Sports commentary panel for more than 20 years, Holding was known for his objective, no-nonsense approach to commentary that earned him admirers across the globe.

The 66-year-old Jamaican had hinted at his impending retirement in April 2020, while a guest on the Mason&Guest talk show in Barbados.

“I am not too sure how much further than 2020 I will be going with commentary. I cannot see myself going much further down the road at my age. I am 66 years old now, I am not 36, 46 or 56,” he said then.

“I told [ Sky] that I could not commit to more than a year at a time. If this year gets totally destroyed, I might have to think about 2021 because I can’t just walk away from Sky, a company that has done so much good for me.”

He also rose to greater global prominence in 2020 when during a rain delay in a Test match in England he spoke for more than four minutes about his support of the Black Lives Matter movement. His comments were made in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota at the hands of Derek Chauvin, a police officer who knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes.  

He subsequently wrote a book chronicling his own experiences with racism as well as those experienced by some of the world’s best-known sports stars including Usain Bolt and Naomi Osaka.

Holding played 60 Test matches for the West Indies between 1975 and 1987 taking 249 wickets of 23.68. During a career in which he came to known as ‘Whispering Death’ because of his silent run-up to the crease before unleashing deliveries of blistering pace, he famously took his Test-best figures of 14-149 at the Oval in 1976.

In 1980, he bowled what is widely regarded as the best over ever bowled in Test cricket to obdurate England opener Geoffrey Boycott. He bowled the batsman neck and crop with the final ball of the over.