NZ all-rounder Dion Nash retires

Injury-plagued New Zealand all-rounder Dion Nash announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on Thursday.

Nash has been battling a hip strain in New Zealand and was not available for the current tour of Pakistan, the latest in a string of injuries in his nine-year career.

"Unfortunately I have come to the realisation that the motivation to overcome this latest injury is not as strong as it needs to be.

"To compete at the very top you need to be 100 percent motivated and focused on achieving and I am not quite there" the 30-year-old Nash said in a statement.

The pugnacious Nash played 32 Tests after making his debut in November 1992, taking 93 wickets at an average of 28.48 and scoring 729 runs at an average of 23.51.

Perhaps Nash's finest performance came at the spiritual home of cricket, Lord's, when he took 11 wickets and made 56 runs in the second Test against England in 1994.

His one-day international career spanned 81 matches, in which he took 64 wickets at an average of 40.96 and scored 624 runs at an average of 15.6.

Nash captained New Zealand in a both a one day and Test series in South Africa in 1998/99, when current captain Stephen Fleming was unavailable, and has deputised for him a number of times.

NZ Cricket chief executive Martin Snedden described Nash as the ultimate competitor.

"He is a talented player and a gifted leader and it is a great shame that injury prevented him from making a fuller contribution to international cricket," he said.

Mail Cricket Editor