William Porterfield, former Ireland captain, announces retirement from international cricket

After leading the Ireland team through a successful era, former Ireland captain William Porterfield announced his retirement from international cricket on Thursday, calling time on a 16-year career.The 37-year-old Porterfield compiled 11 ODI centuries, and a total of 34 scores over fifty across ODI and T20I cricket, he was a pillar at the top of the order for Ireland, scoring close to 10,000 runs internationally across all competitions.

He was appointed as Ireland captain in 2008 and led his team over 250 times, Porterfield led his side in their maiden Test match, and the Lord`s Test match against England, before handing the captaincy to Andrew Balbirnie.

_: GREAT MEMORIES

As we say farewell to a legend of Irish cricket, let's look back at some great memories of @purdy34 in action.#ThankYouPorty #BackingGreen ___ pic.twitter.com/tUomTYQcgN

— Cricket Ireland (@cricketireland) June 16, 2022

"It`s been an honour to represent my country for 16 years. It`s something I had always wanted to do since I was a child," Porterfield said in an official statement released by Ireland Cricket."During my career, we`ve gone from an amateur team right through to now being a Test nation.... All I ever wanted to do was leave the shirt in a better place and leave the team in a better place, and hopefully, I`ve played a part in doing that," he added. Porterfield will take up a coaching role with Gloucestershire. He last played an international match in January at Jamaica`s Sabina Park.

"It`s the ground where a lot of people say put Irish cricket on the map. That ground holds so many memories for me, right through from the Pakistan win in 2007 to walking off the field back in January having beaten the West Indies 2-1," he said.Andrew Balbirnie, the current Ireland captain, said Porterfield would be "a huge loss.""It`s a huge loss when an absolute pillar of the game calls time on his career. William has been an amazing person to have in the dressing room, as a player and as a person. A lot of the foundations that were laid for this current Irish team were done by him and teams that came before us," said Balbirnie.