Kevin O'Brien retires from ODIs

Ireland all-rounder Kevin O'Brien has announced his retirement from One-Day Internationals (ODI). He will b a part of Ireland's T20 International T20I) set up and will look to add to his Test caps in the near future.  O'Brien will be most fondly remembered for the 113 he scored in a winning cause against England in the 2011 World Cup in England. He brought up his fifty off just 50 balls, which is still the fastest century in the history of ODI World Cup.

O'Brien finishes as Ireland's thrid highest ODI run-getter scoring 3,618 runs at 29.41. He also took 114 wickets with his medium pacers, which is the most for Ireland. Announcing his retirement O'Brien said, “After 15 years playing for Ireland, I feel now is the right time to step away and retire from ODI cricket. It has been an honour and a privilege to represent my country 153 times and the memories I take from them will last a lifetime.”

“This has not been an easy decision, but after ongoing consideration, I don’t feel I can contribute to the ODI team as much as I have in the past. The hunger and love for the ODI format is no longer the same as it was and it wouldn’t be fair to Andrew, Graham, the team and our supporters to continue to play while no longer feeling at 100%.”

“I’ve had some unbelievable moments with the team since 2006 - the three World Cups, the personal successes and spending time travelling and playing all over the world, but I will now shift my focus and remain fully committed to T20 cricket - with two world cups in the next 18 months - and hoping to add to my three caps in Test  cricket."

Ireland have a busy few months coming up. They first host South Africa, followed by Zimbabwe for limited-overs series, beginning July 11.

(With inputs from Cricket Ireland media release)

(Photo courtesy: Cricket Ireland)