[vorgaphe]

It has been announced on the ECB's official twitter page that Kevin Pietersen is retiring from all limited overs international cricket with immediate effect. Confirmed by ESPNcricinfo

Kevin Pietersen has played 127 ODIs and 36 international T20s for England, making his international debut in 2004 against Zimbabwe in Harare. "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," he said.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/...ry/566801.html

[Phen]

Didn't see this coming

[Yudi]

This is absolutely shocking to say the least. He had such a good IPL, he certainly is far better than many batsmen to play the limited overs format.

[swacker]

Stunned. He is good in all forms of the game, maybe he has had enough of the schedule that international cricket demands.

[vorgaphe]

The ECB says that the terms of the central contract state that any player making himself unavailable for either of the one-day formats automatically rules himself out of consideration for both formats of the game as planning for both formats is closely linked. But Pietersen added: "For the record, were the selection criteria not in place, I would have readily played for England in the upcoming ICC World Twenty20."

So Pietersen only wanted to retire from ODI's ?

[KBC]

Really strange. Can't fathom he had to quit from the rigorous t20s and ODIs schedule to get a good dose of test cricket. He was great in the IPL too. Not the news you'd expect with KP.

[barmyarmy]

It is strange because to be honest he's a better one day player than test player. I don't think he likes being captained by Cook and Broad...

[Sureshot]

Going to free him up for BBL and what other hit and giggle cricket there is. Disappointing, but those in charge refuse to do anything in reaction to the best players in the world cutting out formats.

Ooh, another OD opening partnership for England!

[Friend863]

Well that was unexpected to say atleast. He had a great record in limited over cricket but retiring at the age of 31? was it really necessary? I don't think he is injury prone too.

Broad captains England in ODI? man I really have fallen behind

[Modi2010]

Cook does, I think.

[Aalay]

Well this is unexpected. He is the best player in shorter format for England. It's sad that we won't see him again in short format.

[barmyarmy]

Originally Posted by Mark

Broad captains England in ODI? man I really have fallen behind

He does the T20.

[swacker]

Didn't realise that if you rule yourself out of either t20 or one-day over cricket, the ECB automatically rule you out of the other format, under the terms of the central contracts.

[StinkyBoHoon]

this is really odd, especially in light of the t20 tournament on the horizon. I was looking at t20 records after sifter had mentioned that we should a sort of all time thread when it was closer and found KP has a good claim to being the best t20 international batsman playing. I know he said he was open to playing it but he still made a decision knowing he was ruling himself out.

in all honesty, KP has always played for himself and he's probably realised the only way to secure some sort of legacy is to improve his test record and this lets him do that while playing in all the t20 leagues he wants to.

something needs to be done about these t20 leagues, I'm quite ok with the IPL/KFC etc but I'm less happy about players having different franchsises in england, australia, bangladesh and the IPL. Need to limit the amount of teams you can play for domestically.