Australia's Voges, Doherty announce retirement

Both players will finish their state cricket career at the end of the Sheffield Shield season

MELBOURNE: Late-blooming Australia batsman Adam Voges and spin bowler Xavier Doherty announced on Wednesday their retirement from international and state cricket at the end of the domestic Sheffield Shield season.

Voges, 37, produced a mountain of runs in a 20-Test cameo late in his career and leaves the game with the second-highest batting average (61.87) among players with at least 20 innings.

Only the great Donald Bradman, who averaged 99.94 from 52 matches, has a better record than the mild-mannered Western Australian on the all-time list.

Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland praised Voges' impact both on and off the pitch.

"Adam has made an outstanding contribution to Australian cricket, and we congratulate him on his achievements with both Australia and Western Australia," Sutherland said in a media release. "An exceptional batsman and leader, Adam has represented his country in exemplary fashion not only with his run-scoring feats, but also in the manner with which he conducts himself both on and off the field."

Left-arm spinner Doherty bows out at 34 after playing 60 one-day matches, 11 T20Is and four Tests in an international career spanning 2010-15.

The slow bowler, nicknamed 'X', would still be available for the domestic 'Big Bash' T20 tournament in the Australian summer, Cricket Australia said.

Voges played 31 ODIs and seven T20I's from 2007-13, recording exceptional batting averages of above 45 in both formats, but he will long be remembered for the late flowering of his Test career.

A dominant state cricketer, Voges appeared destined to join the long list of top Australians never to play a Test, but that all changed when he was called into the squad for Australia's 2015 tour of West Indies at the age of 35.

He became the oldest player to score a century on debut with an unbeaten 130 at the match in Roseau and later piled on the runs in a golden home summer against the same side and New Zealand, plundering a double-century from both.

He was dropped after a lean patch in Sri Lanka last year and against South Africa in the home series, and while some felt he had been harshly done by, Voges never complained.

Voges, already Western Australia's most successful Sheffield Shield captain in terms of wins, will hope to add one more victory to his haul against New South Wales this week at the WACA ground to keep the state's slim title hopes alive.