Peter Ingram believes international career is over

Peter Ingram, the New Zealand opening batsman, has said his international career is "pretty much gone" after being left out of the 30-man preliminary 2011 World Cup squad that was announced last month.

I'll just play for Central Districts and Taranaki if I get a chance," he told the Taranaki Daily News yesterday. Ingram, who played eight ODIs in 2010, scoring 193 runs at an average of 27.57, said he didn't even get a call from the selectors telling him he hadn't made the cut for the World Cup.

"I was third in the one-day averages last year for New Zealand and I didn't even get a call. It just shows what they [selectors] are like."

Ingram plays domestically for Central Districts, which narrowly failed to defend their HRV cup title, losing to Auckland by four runs last weekend. "We're pretty gutted, but that's cricket," he said. "We're still pretty pumped, we've still got two competitions that we want to win and we're pretty excited about that. It can still be a pretty good summer."

New Zealand Cricket decided to move the HRV Cup to December from its traditional spot in January so that it wouldn't clash with the international calendar, which resulted in lower attendances, but Ingram said the change was the right move. "We have to have the Black Caps available. We need the likes of Rossco [Ross Taylor] playing. He brings an extra 1000 people into the ground, I reckon."

Central Districts currently lead New Zealand's domestic four-day competition, the Plunket Shield, having notched up three consecutive victories.