All-rounder Luke Woodcock, who has represented New Zealand Cricket team in seven limited-overs matches has decided to bid goodbye to international cricket. Woodcock will retire after playing in Wellington jersey for 17 years following the game against Canterbury at home on March 17 (Sunday).
Meanwhile, Luke Woodcock has represented the Black Caps in four ODIs and three T20Is. Besides, he was also a part of the 2011 World Cup squad. Despite international numbers being not so impressive, Woodcock has been a consistent performer at the domestic level. Overall, the 36-year-old has played 384 games for Wellington across formats since he made his debut at the age of 19 in 2001. In 2017, Woodcock set the record for most first-class appearances by a New Zealand cricketer when he played his 128th game for Wellington.
Right stage to move on
Speaking on his retirement, Luke Woodcock said that this is the right time to make a move. The all-rounder also added that this feeling was cooking in for the last six to nine months. Woodcock had this feeling that he is in the last stage of his career and the decision to skip the Ford Trophy was probably a hint to his retirement.
“It just feels right at this stage to move on,” he said. “You always get told that you’ll know when things are coming to an end and in all honesty, I never really believed that. But over the last six to nine months things have started to kick in around that final stage of my career and the decision not to play in the Ford Trophy this year was probably a sign it was time to call it a day,” Woodcock added.
Furthermore, Luke Woodcock also added that playing 100 games each in every format is a very special feeling. He also sounded proud for achieving the feat and admitted that it will not sink in till the season finishes.
“To reach 100 games in all three formats is pretty special and won’t probably sink in until the season’s done, but I’m really proud of being able to do that for Wellington,” he concluded.
Luke Woodcock – a handy left-arm spinner has 140 first-class wickets for Wellington, 102 in List A and 92 in T20s. With the bat in the middle-order Woodcock has scored 10,448 runs for Wellington across formats: 7719 at 35.73 in first-class cricket, 1994 at 24.61 in List A and 775 at 19.87 in T2os.