New Zealand's Daniel Vettori retires from international cricket

Daniel Vettori took 705 wickets in international cricket

New Zealand spin bowler Daniel Vettori has retired from international cricket.

The 36-year-old's last appearance for the Black Caps came in Sunday's World Cup final defeat by Australia.

Vettori played 113 Test matches, 295 one-day internationals and 34 Twenty20 internationals, taking 705 wickets, as well as scoring 6,989 runs.

"It was my last game for New Zealand, so it was a lovely way to finish," he said. "It would've been great to win, but I'm pretty proud of everyone."

McCullum tribute

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum had hinted that the World Cup final in Melbourne would be the last international game for Vettori.

Vettori (right) took 15 wickets during the World Cup

"We're going to lose one of our all-time great players," said McCullum after the game. "We're also going to lose a great bloke from the (team) environment as well so he's going to be very hard to replace.

"We'll have a nice celebration for him and we'll be able to toast the success of his career and his impact on this game. We've been lucky to have the privilege of playing with him."

Vettori's World Cup ended on a low note, but he impressed throughout the tournament, taking 15 wickets at an average of 20.46 and with an economy rate of just 4.04 runs per over.

Record breaker

Vettori - the most successful slow, left-arm bowler in history - became his country's youngest Test player when he made his debut against England in Wellington in February 1997 aged just 18 years and 10 days.

His ODI bow came a month later against Sri Lanka.

In his 18-year career, he has taken 361 Test wickets, leaving him second in New Zealand's all-time list behind Sir Richard Hadlee, who took 431, and 297 in ODIs - a Black Caps record.

In addition, he is only one of three men to have scored both 4,000 Test runs and taken 300 Test wickets, along with acknowledged all-round greats Sir Ian Botham of England and India's Kapil Dev.

The Auckland-born player, who captained New Zealand in all three formats of the game, also holds the record for the most Test and ODI appearances for his country.

Vettori has played county cricket in England for both Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire and is currently the head coach of the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League.