Aaron Redmond ends 16-year career

Otago batsman Aaron Redmond has said that the Plunket Shield game against Auckland will be his final professional match, becoming the third New Zealand cricketer in two days to announce his retirement, after Daniel Vettori and Kyle Mills. Redmond, 35, played 128 first-class matches during his 16-year career, scoring 7202 runs at 34.29, with 15 centuries. He also played 21 matches for New Zealand across all formats, but was unable to become a permanent fixture in the team.

''I've been taking my family to and fro from England to here and it has got to the point where I need to put family first,'' Redmond told Otago Times. "'We toyed with the idea of doing another season but I think I need a change, as well.''

In 2008, Redmond received a surprise Test call-up for the tour of England, and made his debut at Lord's. However, he failed to make an impact, scoring just 17 runs in the match, including a seven-ball duck in the first innings. Redmond would play six more Tests that year, but his indifferent form - just two half-centuries from 12 innings - meant he wouldn't play again in the longest format till 2013, when he was picked for the Dunedin Test against West Indies, which was also the last time he played for New Zealand. Redmond also played six ODIs and seven T20Is, but none since 2010.

Redmond, though, enjoyed a far more prolific career for Otago, for whom he scored 4750 runs from 73 first-class matches, including 11 hundreds, putting him sixth on the list of the team's highest run-scorers. He also played 78 T20 matches for them, and was a part of the side that won 14 successive games between December 2012 and September 2013.