WELLINGTON, Feb 14: Former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming is retiring from international cricket at the end of next month’s home Test series against England, he told a news conference in Auckland on Thursday.

The 34-year-old quit One-day Internationals after last year’s World Cup and is now giving up Tests to focus on his family and business interests.

“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,” he said.

Fleming will leave the game with a stack of records to his name. He is New Zealand’s most capped player and leading runscorer in both Tests and one-day cricket.

He is also his country’s most successful captain. He skippered the side for more than a decade and led them to Test series wins over India, England, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

He also led the Black Caps to victory in the 2000 Champions Trophy in Kenya and to the World Cup semi-finals in 1999 and 2007.

“I probably got more joy out of my captaincy than my batting,” he said. “I’d like to be remembered as someone who got the best out of a team that was perhaps challenged at times because of resources but still managed to punch above their weight.”

New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan paid tribute to Fleming’s achievements and said he hoped he would continue his involvement in the sport.

“Stephen’s presence and leadership qualities had a tremendous impact on the team. He has made a huge contribution,” Vaughan said.

“I’m sure we have not seen the last of him and we are working to ensure he has a role within cricket in New Zealand in the future.”

A stylish left-hander and excellent slips fieldsman, Fleming has played a record 108 Tests since making his debut in 1994 and captained his country on 80 occasions, winning 28 times.

He scored 6,785 runs at an average of 39.73 and a highest score of 274 not out, against Sri Lanka in Colombo in 2003, unselfishly declaring in sight of a triple-century.

For all his success, Fleming was often criticised for his failure to convert good starts into bigger scores, registering 43 half-centuries but only nine hundreds.

Fleming also played 280 One-day Internationals, compiling 8,037 runs and a high score of 134 not out against South Africa at the 2003 World Cup in arguably his finest performance.

He became New Zealand’s youngest Test captain when he was appointed skipper at 23 but lost the captaincy to his close friend Daniel Vettori last year.

Fleming admitted his sacking played a part in his decision to retire but he had no regrets about leaving the game.

“He’s going to be remembered as one of our greats,” Vettori said. “He’s been instrumental in a lot of our success over the years through his captaincy, his performance with the bat and his fielding.”

England batsmen Kevin Pietersen, currently on tour in New Zealand, said Fleming was universally regarded by opposition teams as a great captain.

“He’s respected around the world, he’s a fantastic cricketer, a fantastic leader, one of the best who have played the game captaincy-wise,” Pietersen said.

“He’s brought a real small country together and made them really competitive...got them to number three in the world in one-day cricket and really competitive in Test cricket.”

Fleming said he planned to start up a new career but, like many international players who have recently retired, also intends to play in the lucrative Twenty20 Indian Premier League (IPL) starting this year.—Reuters