Peter Parker retires from umpiring

The umpire Peter Parker, a member of Australia's international panel, has announced his retirement. Parker, 49, has quit to focus on his off-field career having accepted a new full-time position with Hastings Deering, the company that has employed him for many years while he also pursued his umpiring interest.

"The company that I've worked with through my whole career have offered me a position in their training institute heading up a program for warehouse training and it was an opportunity for life after cricket," Parker told Cricket Australia's website. "They have supported me for a long time and with this new role I really need to be here full time.

"It's an opportunity that comes along once in a lifetime and I had to make the difficult choice of either continuing to umpire and not have a job or have a job that offers me a career path for the next 15 years. Cricket on the other hand might only give me another five years all going well so this is going to give me a career beyond that I hope."

Parker has been umpiring at international level for 15 years and for 22 seasons on the Australian first-class scene. Although he never quite managed to gain an appointment to the ICC's elite panel, Parker officiated in ten Tests and 65 one-day internationals.

His latest international appearances came during Australia's home ODI series against Bangladesh in Darwin. He also stood in the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean.

A Brisbane grade cricketer during the 1980s, Parker rated officiating in the 1994-95 Sheffield Shield final, when Queensland broke their long drought and won the title for the first time, as a career highlight. Although no replacement has been named for Parker on the international panel, Rod Tucker, the designated TV umpire, is in the box seat for a promotion.