Lou Vincent retires from all cricket

Lou Vincent, the New Zealand batsman, has announced his retirement from all cricket. He made the announcement on Monday evening via Twitter.

1134 games718.5 hotels834 planes57 teams3 punch ups1 proud career5pm 18th Feb 2013 I'm pulling stumps. Thank you all x

— Lou Vincent (@louvincent78) February 18, 2013

An occasional wicketkeeper, Vincent, 34, played 23 Tests and 102 ODIs for New Zealand, the last of which was in December 2007. Then he signed with the now defunct Indian Cricket League - by joining the unsanctioned Twenty20 league, he was temporarily barred from playing for New Zealand and lost his central contract. He followed up with a stint in English county cricket, and later played domestic Twenty20 cricket in Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, apart from turning out for Auckland on the New Zealand domestic circuit.

Vincent battled depression during the course of his career, which he had to monitor through medication. The condition, he had said, affected his "hunger for cricket" at one of his lower points.

He had a brilliant start to Test cricket in 2001, scoring 104 and 54 while opening the innings in Perth, against an Australian attack that included Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, Brett Lee and Shane Warne. However, consistency eluded him in his career and he finished with 1332 runs at 34.15. His highest score of 224 came against Sri Lanka in April 2005 in Wellington, in a Test New Zealand won by an innings.

In ODIs, Vincent finished with 2413 runs at 27.11. He played 98 first-class games and 220 List A games in all. His last competitive cricket was in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League, for Khulna Royal Bengals.