Yardy calls time on Sussex career

Mike Yardy, the last link with the Sussex side that won the Championship three times between 2003 and 2007, has announced his retirement at the end of the season.

Yardy, 34, was part of the England side which won the World Twenty20 title five years ago but his England career ended in Colombo the following year when he left the World Cup with depression.

Injuries have also become a burden with Mark Robinson, Sussex's director of cricket, praising his contribution over recent weeks "in defiance of physios' advice". Robinson said: "He is an integral part of the club... the last bastion. He has been a fantastic role model and is a strong and hard man who leads by example. He plays tough cricket."

Yardy played 42 times for England - 28 ODIs and 14 T20Is - as a defensive left-arm spinner and useful batsman, his talents respected if rarely extolled. But it is at Sussex where he has made the greatest impression, playing 449 matches in all formats since making his Sussex debut in 1999. He has scored more than 10,000 first-class runs.

He skippered the county from 2009, leading them to the Twenty20 title in the same year before he stepped down soon after announcing that he was suffering from depression. His form has been affected by injury this season, with only one half-century and one wicket in five Championship matches.

"I have found the last few years increasingly more difficult and frustrating and want to look back on my career with pride and fondness," Yardy said. "After lots of conversations with my wife, now is the time to start a new journey away from playing cricket. I'm excited for the next couple of months and doing anything that is possible for us to have successful season."