Former Scotland captain Kyle Coetzer and former New Zealand offspinner Will Somerville announce retirement

Kyle Coetzer, the former Scotland captain and former New Zealand offspinner Will Somerville announced retirement. While Coetzer who led his team to known victories over England in 2018 and into the Super 12 stage of the 2021 T20 World Cup, has announced his retirement from international cricket at the age of 38. The 30-year-old Somerville will retire from the professional game after the domestic season ends.

Coetzer had stepped down from the captaincy in May 2022 and had also retired from T20Is. However, he will now take up a role as an assistant coach with Northern Diamonds in the Women’s Hundred and has called time in all formats of the game.

“I don’t ever think there’s a perfect time for a decision like this, but I’ve been considering my options for some time, and an opportunity came up which was too good to turn down,” Coetzer said in a retirement statement through Cricket Scotland.

 “The balance that the Scotland team need at this time was outweighed by the opportunity for me to move into coaching, and I’m extremely excited about the chance to work with such a high-profile team.”

Coetzer is ending his career as Scotland’s all-time leading scorer in ODIs with 3192 runs in 89 matches at an average of 38.92. Moreover, he is currently the second-highest run-scorer for Scotland with 1495 runs in 70 matches.

Will Somerville played six Tests between 2018 and 2021 and scalped 15 wickets, seven of which came on debut in Abu Dhabi where he guided New Zealand to a 123-run victory over Pakistan.

“I’ve achieved more than what I thought I could achieve after becoming a professional cricketer at 30 years old,” he said. “I’ve played nine seasons professionally and loved every minute of it.”

Somerville is set to play his last first-class game against Central Stags in Nelson April this year. Ahead of the ongoing round of Plunket Shield matches he had 156 first-class wickets at 29.57.

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