Pietersen retires from England one-day cricket

Kevin Pietersen has retired from all international limited overs cricket with immediate effect. He will remain available for consideration as a specialist Test match player only. The news comes four months before England defend their World T20 title in Sri Lanka.

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

The terms of ECB central contracts state that any player who makes themselves unavailable for either format of one-day cricket is automatically ruled out of selection for both ODIs and T20s.

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

He has no plans to retire from the IPL, which will further increase tensions between IPL and international cricket and heighten the debate over whether a window is becoming increasingly necessary to seek accommodation between the tournament and the international circuit.

Pietersen, 31, has played 127 ODIs and 36 international T20s for England, making his international debut in 2004 against Zimbabwe in Harare. Pietersen has scored 4,184 runs at an average of 41.84 in one-day internationals and averages 37.93 in international T20 cricket.