Cricket - Stephen Fleming to retire after England Series

Former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming announced today he will retire from international cricket after the third Test against England next month.

The third Test will be played in Napier from March 22-26, after which Fleming said he would concentrate on business opportunities and also play in India's Twenty20 Premier League.

"I always indicated that I was likely to retire from international cricket at some point in the near future, and the time is right for me and my family to do that now," Fleming told a press conference in Auckland today.

Fleming departs with a sackful of New Zealand Test records. No New Zealander has played as many Tests (108), scored as many runs (6875), taken as many catches (166), captained as many games (80), or led as many wins (28) as Fleming.

Appointed at 23, he was the country's youngest Test skipper and only Allan Border, who led Australia through 93 Tests, guided his team in more games. When Fleming retired from one-day international cricket last September he left with a similar bunch of records. At the same time as Fleming quit ODIs New Zealand handed the Test captaincy to Daniel Vettori, which disappointed Fleming, who wanted to see if separate captains could help New Zealand's consistency.

When he made his Test debut in 1993-94 it was immediately apparent the selectors had found an important player for the future success of the side. In a team led by Ken Rutherford against India in Hamilton, Fleming made 92 in his opening Test, and he followed it just days later with 90 in his ODI debut in Napier.

He led New Zealand to their first triumph in a major tournament - the Champions Trophy in Nairobi in 2000.

The one-day arena was also where Fleming experienced some of his biggest disappointments, and failing to get his team into a World Cup final was a regret. Following last year's semi-final knockout at the hands of Sri Lanka, Fleming quit the ODI captaincy, which precipitated a chain of events that gradually led to his removal from the Test leadership. Fittingly, though, he has been afforded the right to end his playing career on his own terms.