England cricket captain Andrew Strauss retires.

Andrew Strauss is retiring from all forms of cricket relinquishing his position as England cricket captain. His reign has been hugely successful with two back to back wins in the Ashes series over Australia and his captaincy saw England rise to the number one team in the world. Lately however, England has been on a losing streak and internal battles with England’s star batsman Kevin Pietersen seem to have created serious discontent in the England camp.

Andrew is a Sun sign Pisces (born 2nd March 1977 in Johannesburg, South Africa) with his Moon either in flamboyant Leo or more likely his Moon in security conscious Cancer. With no birth time and no certain placement for the Moon in a particular sign, it is highly difficult to make any definite assertions from his chart. He does have a very stressful Saturn opposite Mars square Uranus t-square which is hugely determined and fixed with a highly independent streak. For an opening batsman, you need huge determination and focus and this t-square contributes much to his success. Pluto makes a trine to Mars and an opposition to his Venus in Aries, so the relationships he has are likely to be direct, possibly combative and also transformational. Now look at the synastry between Kevin Pietersen’s chart and Andrew’s Venus.

We have Pietersen’s Saturn Mars inconjunct to Venus, Pluto opposes, Uranus makes an inconjunct and Neptune makes a trine. With all Kevin Pietersen’s outer planets aimed at Andrew’s Aries Venus which is under duress itself natally, you can imagine how once the disagreements began, it polarized the England cricket team and the relationship broke down in a professional sense irrevocably. Venus in Aries doesn't take any nonsense, and the transformation Pluto promised on Andrew’s chart has come to pass with both players now set to be out of the picture very soon. Pietersen’s planets also make multiple aspects to Andrew’s Jupiter, his philosophy and the bigger picture that he sees so we have two “pinch points” between them which may have upset what looked a reasonable and not overly difficult relationship. It is hugely interesting that Pietersen’s Mercury is square Andrew’s Nodal axis, in effect Andrew’s ultimate destiny was in the hands of what Pietersen communicated or texted, and that is exactly what has precipitated the position we are in today. Pietersen was dropped from the side for a disrespectful text message sent to the South African team, England subsequently lost the test series, losing their number one status and the row has obviously hit team moral.

Andrew himself has been suffering from Neptune sitting on his natal Mercury in the past year, causing a lack of mental confidence and personal confusion leading to a loss of form and the transiting Nodes are now square to his Mercury in Pisces bringing everything to a head and facilitating the snap decision today to resign his position. I think he knew with Pietersen out of the team, England’s side needed a bit of rebuilding and it probably needed a younger face to lead a new evolving team. Transiting Saturn is also sitting on Andrew’s North Node and often this is a time of reward in a career sense, but because Andrew’s natal Saturn is bombarded by a tough t-square, Saturn’s influence is a bit debilitating on his future direction in life. Saturn forced him to make a change and a tough decision and to take a different direction. In hindsight, Andrew may appreciate that this will be a good thing for him. Cricketers have a tough life travelling away on tours for months on end, and it may well be a relief to him to finally enjoy life at home for once with his wife Ruth and his children.

I wish him well and thank him for his services to English cricket and his brilliant captaincy. Those wins in the Ashes over Australia were memories that I will treasure for a long time to come.