Petersen quits international cricket

Alviro Petersen has retired from international cricket following the Test series against West Indies and will take up a Kolpak deal in English county cricket. The strong suggestion is that Lancashire are the favourites to sign the opener, whose last county stint was with Somerset in 2014.

Petersen played 36 Tests, scored 2093 runs at 34.88 with five hundreds, including one on debutagainst India in Kolkata. He informed the South Africa management of his decision on the second day of the New Year’s Test but revealed that he had considered calling it a day months before.

“It’s something I started thinking about over the last six or eight months. I felt I need to move on with my career,” he said. “There are some good young players coming through and I think it’s about time.”