Veteran New Zealand spinner Todd Astle has announced his retirement from red-ball cricket to concentrate more on limited-overs. As a result, the cricketer will not be available for New Zealand A's first-class series against India A in Christchurch starting from January 30 (Thursday).
Astle has only played five Tests over eight years since making his Test debut in 2012. The 33-year-old has picked up seven wickets at 52.57 and scored 98 runs at 19.60. Toss Astle's last Test was against Australia in Sydney earlier this month. The off-spinner largely stayed under the shadow of Daniel Vettori and later Jeetan Patel throughout his career.
Todd Astle. Credit: Getty Images[/caption]
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Speaking on his retirement, Todd Astle said he is honoured to represent New Zealand in Test cricket. He also revealed that he is finding it hard to maintain the level as he is on the twilight of his cricketing career.
"Playing Test cricket was always the dream and I’m so honoured to have represented my country and province in the longest form of the game," he said. "Red-ball cricket is the pinnacle, but also requires a huge amount of time and effort.
"As I’ve got to the back end of my career I’ve found it harder to maintain the level of commitment required to be fully invested in this version of the game," Astle added.
Todd Astle. Credit: Getty Images[/caption]
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Meanwhile, Todd Astle has had a successful first-class career. Since his first-class debut in 2005, he has played 119 matches, scoring over 4000 runs and picking up 334 wickets at an average of 32.17. He is also Canterbury's highest first-class wicket-taker with 303 scalps. Astle stressed that he now wants to focus more on white-ball cricket and spend more time with his family and young children. He has played nine ODIs and three T20Is for New Zealand.
"I’m excited to now focus all my energy into the white-ball formats, as well as give more time to my young family and new business," he concluded.
