“It was my last game for New Zealand, in the final, so it was a lovely way to finish”
Image courtesy of: Zimbio
Left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori has brought his 18-year international career to an end, stating that the World Cup final loss to Australia was his last game for New Zealand.
Vettori made the announcement when New Zealand arrived back in Auckland.
“It was my last game for New Zealand, in the final, so it was a lovely way to finish,” Vettori told reporters at Auckland airport. “It would have been great to win, but I’m pretty proud of everyone, the way we’ve gone about things the last six weeks.
“To be able to finish in the final, albeit without a win, I’m just very grateful for the amount of support I had particularly from Brendon [McCullum] and Mike [Hesson]. To be able to get back from a number of injuries and to be here and to be part of it … is something I’ll always treasure.”
Vettori departs from international cricket as New Zealand’s most-capped Test player as he represented his country 113 times and took 361 wickets at an average of 34.15.
Vettori is also one of three players to have achieved the feat of scoring 4,000 Test runs and taking 300 wickets. The other two players to have accomplished that are India’s Kapil Dev and England’s Sir Ian Botham.
The 36-year-old is also New Zealand’s most-capped ODI player and highest wicket-taker. Including his ICC World XI games, Vettori played 295 ODIs and snapped up 305 wickets at an average of 31.71.