Record-breaking former New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori has announced his retirement from international cricket.
The 36-year-old, an intelligent left-arm spinner and dependable left-handed lower-order batsman, has called time on a career that has included 113 Tests, 295 one-day internationals and 34 Twenty20 internationals.
His last appearance for his country came in Sunday's World Cup final against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where New Zealand suffered a seven-wicket defeat.
Today he told reporters at Auckland airport: "It was my last game for New Zealand, in the final, so it was a lovely way to finish.
"Obviously it would have been great to win, but I'm pretty proud of everyone, the way we've gone about things the last six weeks."
Vettori, who was named in the ICC team of the tournament after taking 15 wickets, added: "To be able to finish in the final, albeit without a win, I'm just very grateful for the amount of support I had, particularly from Brendon (McCullum, New Zealand’s captain) and Mike (Hesson, the Black Caps’ head coach).
"To be able to get back from a number of injuries and to be here and to be part of it, and hopefully to be a big contributing factor, is something I'll always treasure."
Vettori became New Zealand's youngest Test player when he made his debut against England in February 1997 at the age of 18 and went on to take 361 wickets in the format, leaving him second in the country's all-time list behind Sir Richard Hadlee (431).
Vettori is only one of three players to have scored 4,000 Test runs and taken 300 Test wickets, along with Sir Ian Botham and Kapil Dev. Vettori's 4,531 format runs came at a healthy average of 30.
His ODI bow came a month later against Sri Lanka and his final tally of 297 wickets is the best by a New Zealander, with Kyle Mills second on the list with 240 scalps.
The Auckland-born spinner, who captained New Zealand in all three formats, also holds the record for the most Test (112) and ODI (291) appearances for New Zealand.
He also played one Test and four ODIs for the International Cricket Council World XI in 2005, taking nine wickets in total.
Vettori, who has played for Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire in county cricket, is the head coach of Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League.