SYDNEY (AP) — Australia captain Alyssa Healy is retiring following India's upcoming tour, ending a 15-year international career including eight World Cup titles.
The 35-year-old Healy has scored more than 7,000 runs across all three international formats with 275 dismissals following her national debut in 2010.
The wicketkeeper has won the T20 World Cup six times and the ODI World Cup twice and has been the captain since the end of 2023.
Healy's records include the highest individual score in an ODI World Cup final (170 against England in 2022), the most runs in a T20 international (148 not out against Sri Lanka in 2019) and the most dismissals in T20 internationals by a woman or man (126).
“It’s with mixed emotions that the upcoming India series will be my last for Australia," she said on Tuesday. "I’m still passionate about playing for Australia but I’ve somewhat lost that competitive edge that’s kept me driven since the start, so the time feels right to call it a day.
“Knowing I won’t be going to the T20 World Cup this year and the limited preparation time the team has, I won’t be part of the T20s against India, but I’m excited to have the opportunity to finish my career and captain the ODI and test side at home against India — one of the biggest series on the calendar for us."
The series with India features three T20s from Feb. 15-21, followed by three one-day internationals from Feb. 24-March 1 and finishing with a test in Perth from March 6-9.
If she plays five of the matches she will reach 300 internationals.
Healy has also done television commentary for the past several years including during the recent Ashes series that she missed because of injury. She is married to Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc and is the niece of former Australia wicketkeeper Ian Healy.
“Alyssa is one of the all-time greats of the game and has made an immeasurable contribution both on and off the field," Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg said. “We look forward to celebrating her achievements throughout the series against India.”
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FILE - Australia's captain Alyssa Healy celebrates after scoring hundred runs during the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup match between Australia and Bangladesh at ACA–VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam, India, Oct. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A., File)
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A suspect in an arson fire at a synagogue that was bombed by the Ku Klux Klan decades ago admitted to targeting the historic institution because it’s a Jewish house of worship and confessed what he had done to his father, who turned him in to authorities after observing burn marks on his son’s ankles, hands and face, the FBI said Monday.
Stephen Pittman was charged with maliciously damaging or destroying a building by means of fire or an explosive. The suspect confessed to lighting a fire inside the building, which he referred to as “the synagogue of Satan,” according to an FBI affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Mississippi on Monday.
There was no attorney listed for Pittman in the court docket Monday.
The fire ripped through the Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson shortly after 3 a.m. on Saturday. No congregants or firefighters were injured. Security camera video released Monday by the synagogue showed a masked and hooded man using a gas can to pour liquid on the floor and a couch in the building’s lobby.
The weekend fire badly damaged the 165-year-old synagogue’s library and administrative offices. Five Torahs — the sacred scrolls with the text of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible — located inside the sanctuary were being assessed for smoke damage. Two Torahs inside the library, where the most severe damage was done, were destroyed. One Torah that survived the Holocaust was behind glass and was not damaged in the fire, according to the congregation.
The suspect’s father contacted the FBI and said his son had confessed to setting the building on fire. Pittman had texted his father a photo of the rear of the synagogue before the fire, with the message, “There's a furnace in the back.” His father had pleaded with his son to return home, but “Pittman replied back by saying he was due for a homerun and ‘I did my research,’” the affidavit said.
During an interview with investigators, Pittman said he had stopped at a gas station on his way to the synagogue to purchase the gas used in the fire. He also took the license plate off of his vehicle at the gas station. He used an ax to break out a window of the synagogue, poured gas inside and used a torch lighter to start the fire, the FBI affidavit said.
The FBI later recovered a burned cell phone believed to be Pittman’s and took possession of a hand torch that a congregant had found.
Yellow police tape on Monday blocked off the entrances to the synagogue building, which was surrounded by broken glass and soot. Bouquets of flowers were laid on the ground at the building's entrance — including one with a note that said, “I'm so very sorry.”
The congregation's president, Zach Shemper, has vowed to rebuild the synagogue and said several churches had offered their spaces for worship during the rebuilding process.
With just several hundred people in the community, it has never been particularly easy being Jewish in Mississippi’s capital city, but members of Beth Israel have taken special pride in keeping their traditions alive in the heart of the Deep South.
Nearly every aspect of Jewish life in Jackson could be found under Beth Israel's roof. The midcentury modern building not only housed the congregation but also the Jewish Federation, a nonprofit provider of social services and philanthropy that is the hub of Jewish society in most U.S. cities. The building also is home to the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, which provides resources to Jewish communities in 13 southern states. A Holocaust memorial was outdoors behind the synagogue building.
Because Jewish children throughout the South have attended summer camp for decades in Utica, Mississippi, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southwest of Jackson, many retain a fond connection to the state and its Jewish community.
“Jackson is the capital city, and that synagogue is the capital synagogue in Mississippi,” said Rabbi Gary Zola, a historian of American Jewry who taught at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. “I would call it the flagship, though when we talk about places like New York and Los Angeles, it probably seems like Hicksville.”
Beth Israel as a congregation was founded in 1860 and acquired its first property, where it built Mississippi's first synagogue, after the Civil War. In 1967, the synagogue moved to its current location.
It was bombed by local KKK members not long after relocating, and then two months after that, the home of the synagogue's leader, Rabbi Perry Nussbaum, was bombed because of his outspoken opposition to segregation and racism.
At a time when opposition to racial segregation could be dangerous in the Deep South, many Beth Israel congregants hoped the rabbi would just stay quiet, but Nussbaum was unshakable in believing he was doing the right thing by supporting civil rights, Zola said.
“He had this strong, strong sense of justice,” Zola said.
Martin contributed to this report from Atlanta. Schneider reported from Orlando, Fla. Follow him on the social platform Bluesky: @mikeysid.bsky.social
Burnt debris from a fire at the Beth Israel Congregation glint in the sun on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Sophie Bates)
A note attached to a bundle of flowers left outside the Beth Israel Congregation reads, I am so very sorry," on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Sophie Bates)
/// Boards cover the charred remains of the Beth Israel Congregation library, which was set on fire early Saturday morning, on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Jackson, Mississippi. (AP Photo / Sophie Bates)
Caution tape and flowers cover the entrance to the Beth Israel Congregation, a synagogue that was set on fire early Saturday morning, on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Sophie Bates)
FILE - This Nov. 2, 2018 photo shows an armed Hinds County Sheriff's deputy outside of the Beth Israel Congregation synagogue in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, file)
