{"id":36917,"date":"2026-06-12T13:54:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T11:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=36917"},"modified":"2026-06-12T13:54:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T11:54:06","slug":"new-zealands-williamson-retires-from-international-cricket","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/new-zealands-williamson-retires-from-international-cricket\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand&#8217;s Williamson retires from international cricket"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Former New Zealand captain Kane Williamson announced his retirement from international cricket on Friday, bringing an end to a 16-year career \u200bmarked by numerous accolades and by captaining his side \u200cto the title in the inaugural World Test Championship in 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The 35-year-old batsman made his debut in the longest format against India in November 2010 in \u200bAhmedabad, and played 110 tests in all, scoring 9,515 runs \u200bat an average of 54.06.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">He is New Zealand\u2019s all-time leading \u2060international run-scorer with 19,346 runs, including 48 centuries and six \u200bdouble-centuries across all formats. He will no longer play a part in \u200bthe ongoing test series against England.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always felt a strong drive and hunger for international cricket, and I take pride in knowing I\u2019ve given it my \u200ball in every match I\u2019ve played for New Zealand,&#8221; Williamson said \u200bin a statement.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cContinuing with anything less wouldn\u2019t be right and I feel fortunate to \u200cstep \u2060away on my own terms.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI leave feeling optimistic about where this group is heading. There\u2019s a huge amount of talent, and a real desire to do something special with this New Zealand team.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Williamson led \u200bthe Kiwis as \u200bcaptain across formats \u2060between 2016 and 2024. He led the test side for 40 matches, and guided them to the \u200btitle in the 2021 World Test Championship, beating \u200bIndia in \u2060the final.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He won 22 tests, and scored 11 hundreds as captain before stepping down from the role in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Williamson\u2019s list of accolades includes being \u2060named \u200bthe ICC Cricketer of 2015 and test \u200bplayer of 2019, while also winning the Sir Richard Hadlee Medal on a record \u200bfour occasions.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22148,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[],"class_list":["post-36917","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"He is New Zealand\u2019s all-time leading \u2060international run-scorer with 19,346 runs.","published_date":"","news_description":"He is New Zealand\u2019s all-time leading \u2060international run-scorer with 19,346 runs.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36918,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36917\/revisions\/36918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=36917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}