Kevin Pietersen Announces International Limited-Overs Retirement

England batsman Kevin Pietersen has retired from international limited-overs cricket with immediate effect.

The 31-year-old made his international debut in 2004 against Zimbabwe in Harare and went on to make 127 ODI and 36 international T20 appearances for England.

He said: "After a great deal of thought and deliberation, I am today announcing my retirement from International One Day Cricket.

"With the intensity of the international schedule and the increasing demands on my body, approaching 32, I think it is the right time to step aside and let the next generation of players come through to gain experience for the ICC World Cup in 2015.

"I am immensely proud of my achievements in the One Day game, but still wish to be considered for selection for England in Test cricket.

"For the record, were the selection criteria not in place, I would have readily played for England in the upcoming ICC World Twenty20."

Managing Director England Cricket, Hugh Morris, said the search for Pietersen's replacement would begin immediately: "ECB is disappointed by the timing of Kevin's decision less than four months before we defend our ICC World Twenty20 title.

"Kevin is a world class player and I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his efforts and we look forward to his continued contributions to the Test match side.

"As the programming and planning for ODI and T20 format cricket are very closely linked we have a selection policy that means that any player making himself unavailable for either of the one day formats, rules himself out of consideration for both formats. The selectors will now replace Kevin in both the ODI and the T20 squads."