By IANS
Wellington : New Zealand all-rounder Scott Styris Sunday announced his retirement from Test cricket to further his international career.
Styris, 32, said he decided to call it a day in Tests because in the recent past he had struggled to cope up with frequent injuries and was of the view in order to increase the longevity of his career he needed to limit himself to the Twenty20 and One-day Internationals (ODI).
“I want to play for New Zealand for as long as I can and at the moment I feel with the amount of injuries I’m getting, if I don’t knock something on the head I won’t be around in 12 months time,” Styris was quoted as saying by the New Zealand Press Association (NZPA).
He also expressed his desire to feature in the 2011 World Cup in the sub-continent and said to achieve it he had to sacrifice his career in the longer version of the game.
“I’d like to play another World Cup and if I’m to get through to it (2011) something has to give,” he said.
Styris, who made his international debut in 2004 against West Indies at St. Lucia, has played 29 Tests for the Kiwis and has scored 1,586 runs at an average of 36.04. He has five centuries, with a highest score of 170 to his credit.
Styris has also played 142 ODIs, scoring 3,440 runs at an average of 33.074 with four hundreds and a high score of 141.
His retirement comes days after teammate Shane Bond had confirmed his retirement from international cricket. Bond’s decision came just before his central contract with the New Zealand Cricket was about to be terminated because of his links with the breakaway Indian Cricket League (ICL).
Though, Styris is expected to join the Board of Control for India (BCCI)-backed Indian Premier League (IPL) in future, he made it clear that his decision to quit Tests was not inspired by that.
“Not at all. The decision has been based around playing as long as I can for New Zealand and the easiest thing for me was to give up the Test match side of the game,” he said.