Parore bows out with no regrets

Adam Parore bowed out of Test cricket on Wednesday with no regrets after helping New Zealand beat England by 78 runs and square the series in the third Test in Auckland.

He also achieved the milestone he coveted most, securing 200 Test wicketkeeping dismissals. The man who has been regarded as something of an enfant terrible in his often turbulent career, lapped up the ovation that moment brought from the crowd of about 10,000.

Graham Thorpe was the victim, and like a batsman scoring a century, Parore acknowledged the crowd's applause, as he had done the evening before when his last innings of 36 signalled the end of his international batting.

Were there any regrets? Were there any second thoughts during this last Test?

"No. The decision was made on a number of levels," he said. "It's not that I don't want to play cricket any more, but just that I wanted to do other things as well."

Parore, who successfully studied for a law degree, said he wished to start a business career, have a social life and raise a family.

"I'm 31 and I have no job, no family and I'm not married," he said. "I've spent 20 years of my life educating myself at school and university and I always thought there would be something that would be more important than cricket."

MILESTONE

Parore said achieving 200 wicketkeeping victims -- 194 catches and seven stumpings at the end of this Test -- was a big milestone.

"I would have been absolutely gutted not to have made that number," he said. "It's a huge honour to be in that group of great wicketkeepers. Those guys have always been my heroes since I was a little kid."

He is now the seventh most successful wicketkeeper ever with his 201 dismissals, behind Ian Healy and Rodney Marsh (Australia), Jeffrey Dujon (West Indies), Alan Knott and Godfrey Evans (England) and Wasim Bari of Pakistan, although South Africa's Mark Boucher, with 200 dismissals is bound to overtake him next time South Africa play a Test.

Parore has not always seen eye to eye with officialdom. In 1996 he walked out of the tour of the West Indies after the first Test under the disciplinarian coach Glenn Turner, which almost spelt the end of his career.

He was dropped as wicketkeeper for eight Tests, when Turner's choice as captain, Lee Germon, took over the gloves. In that time he took three catches in the outfield, itself an unusual statistic for a keeper who played 78 tests.

He came back when Germon was injured and subsequently dumped as captain in favour of Stephen Fleming during the 1997 tour by England under the guidance of former Australian wicketkeeper Steve Rixon.

Parore also courted controversy early this year when he announced he was taking a rest after touring Australia, played Bangladesh and took part in the tri-series one-dayers back in Australia.

He cited exhaustion as the reason, but his province Auckland were annoyed and, when he changed his mind, they did not pick him.

He made the Test team when New Zealand Cricket chief executive Martin Snedden, whose last Test at Edgbaston in 1990 was Parore's first, smoothed the waters between the player and the chairman of selectors Richard Hadlee.

The series was not Parore's greatest, but he achieved what he intended to achieve. He can now bow out with the knowledge that he has no unfinished business on a cricket field.

Mail Cricket Editor