England’s Kevin Pietersen quits international one-day cricket

England batsman Kevin Pietersen has announced his retirement from all international limited-overs cricket with immediate effect.

The 31-year-old has played 127 ODIs and 36 international T20s for England, making his international debut in 2004 against Zimbabwe in Harare.

“After a great deal of thought and deliberation, I am today announcing my retirement from international one-day cricket,” said Pietersen.

“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 World Cup in 2015.”

Pietersen has scored 4184 runs at an average of 42 in one-day internationals and averages 38 in international T20 cricket.

He added: “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.”

Pietersen’s current contract, which runs through to September 2012, will be downgraded to reflect the fact that he will only be selected for Test match cricket.

Hugh Morris, managing director of England Cricket, said: “We are 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 match 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.”

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