Moises Henriques retires as Australia’s most-capped domestic player, with a Portugal chapter still to come
Moises Henriques is walking away from the Sydney Sixers and New South Wales, but the former Sunrisers Hyderabad all-rounder isn’t done with cricket altogether. Portugal, his country of birth, is next.
Jul 16, 2026
Moises Henriques has retired from Australian domestic cricket, ending a 22-year career that leaves him as the most-capped player the country’s domestic game has produced. The 39-year-old all-rounder called time on his days with the Sydney Sixers and New South Wales, the only two sides he turned out for at home, after being left without a contract for the next Big Bash League season.
The bare numbers explain the fuss. Henriques bows out as the most-capped player in BBL history, with 154 appearances across all fifteen seasons of the tournament, 129 of them as captain. Broaden it to every format and the figure climbs to 420 domestic matches since his debut in 2004, a record for an Australian domestic cricketer. Along the way he gathered 14 major trophies, among them three BBL titles with the Sixers, and finishes as the club’s all-time leading run-scorer in the competition.
A one-club man at home
The timing was not entirely his to choose. Henriques was not offered a deal for the coming BBL season, and he had gone under the knife for back surgery in February. Rather than chase a new start elsewhere, he decided to end things as a one-club man at the Sixers.
“I had interest from other BBL teams, but it just didn’t feel right to go elsewhere,” he said. What he will miss, he added, is the noise of a full house. “What I’m going to miss is that instant feedback, hearing all the fans light up.”
The IPL years Indian fans remember
Followers of the Indian Premier League knew Henriques long before this. He made his IPL debut for Kolkata Knight Riders in 2009 and went on to play for five franchises in all, taking in Delhi, Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore before four seasons at Sunrisers Hyderabad from 2014, where he was part of the squad that won the 2016 title, and later a spell with Punjab Kings. Across 62 IPL matches he scored close to 1,000 runs at an average of nearly 28, with a top score of 74 not out, and chipped in with 42 wickets from his medium pace.
An international career, and an unusual next act
For Australia he won 44 caps spread across the three formats, four Tests, 16 one-day internationals and 24 T20Is, before his last international appearance in 2021. His Test debut came against India, at Chennai in 2013. He never quite nailed down a settled place in the national side, but the all-round skill that kept him in and around it for a decade is the same one that made him so useful in franchise cricket.
Retirement in Australia does not mean retirement from the game, though. Born in Funchal on the Portuguese island of Madeira, and taken to Australia as a one-year-old, Henriques intends to play on for Portugal, lining up in Europe’s qualifying campaign for the 2028 T20 World Cup, and he is set to feature for Glasgow Cosmic in a new six-team European T20 league launching in August. At 39, he is swapping one chapter for another rather than closing the book.
The tributes reflected what he meant to his home state. “His leadership, integrity and commitment have shaped the club,” said Sydney Sixers general manager Rachael Haynes, who credited him as a central figure in the franchise’s first three BBL titles, lifting the trophy twice as captain and earning player of the match in the club’s inaugural championship final. Two decades, one home dressing room, and a stack of records that will take some beating. Few careers hold together quite so neatly.