London, Jan 19 (IANS): South Africa opener Hashim Amla, who has joined MI Cape Town as a batting coach for SA20, has announced his retirement as player from all forms of cricket.

The 39-year-old South African batting legend has informed Surrey Country Club that he will not play for them in the County Championship 2023. Amla had played a key role in helping Surrey win the Championship in 2022, the last season of his contract with the county club.

In his two-decade-long career, Amla has scored 34,104 runs across all formats -- 9,282 of them in 124 Tests, the second highest for his country behind Jacques Kallis for his country. This included 28 hundreds and a best of 311 not out against England at The Oval in 2012, which was also South Africa's first triple-century in Tests.

Amla was also quite successful in white-ball cricket, scoring 8113 runs including 27 hundreds in 181 ODIs, and 1,277 runs in 44 T20Is.

A few months back he embarked on a coaching career, joining MI Cape Town as a batting coach in the ongoing SA20.

Amla quit international cricket after South Africa's campaign ended in the 2019 ODI World Cup. He had bowed out of Test cricket earlier in the same year after a match against Sri Lanka at Gqeberha in February ending a two-decade career that stretched from 200 4o 2019.

On Wednesday he officially informed Surrey that he would not return to help them defend the title they won in 2022. He rejoined Surrey in 2019, having also represented the county as an overseas player in 2013 and 2014. He had earlier had stints with Derbyshire, Hampshire, Nottinghamshire and Essex. He also represented Kings XI Punjab in the IPL and Kwa-Zulu Natal, Dolphins and Cape Cobras in South Africa's domestic competitions.