Kevin Pietersen retires from limited-overs

Kevin Pietersen has retired from international one-dayers and twenty20s with immediate effect, leaving the ECB "disappointed by the timing" of his decision.

It is understood that Pietersen - who was Man of the Tournament when England won the World Twenty20 in 2010 - had wanted to continue his limited-overs career in Twenty20s only, but was refused permission by his employers.

"After a great deal of thought and deliberation, I am announcing my retirement from international one-day cricket," Pietersen said. "With the intensity of the international schedule and the increasing demands on my body, approaching 32, I think it is the right time to step aside and let the next generation of players come through to gain experience for the ICC World Cup in 2015.

"I am immensely proud of my achievements in the one-day game but still wish to be considered for selection for England in Test cricket. For the record, were the selection criteria not in place, I would have readily played for England in the upcoming World Twenty20."

Hugh Morris, the England team's managing director, responded: "ECB is disappointed by the timing of Kevin's decision less than four months before we defend our ICC World Twenty20 title. Kevin is a world-class player and I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his efforts and we look forward to his continued contributions to the Test side.

"As the programming and planning for ODI and T20 format cricket are very closely linked we have a selection policy that means that any player making himself unavailable for either of the one-day formats, rules himself out of consideration for both formats. The selectors will now replace Kevin in both the ODI and the T20 squads."

Pietersen has played 127 ODIs and 36 international T20s for England. He made his debut in 2004 against Zimbabwe in Harare and scored 4,184 runs at an average of 42 in one-day internationals.

Date: 31/05/2012 11:50:52 by Dan Brigham
In: Worcestershire | Today | Somerset |