Australia captain Michael Clarke has announced that he will play his final one-day international in the Cricket World Cup final against New Zealand.
The 33-year-old has been greatly affected by injuries in recent years and has taken the decision to retire from the limited-overs game in an attempt to prolong his Test career with the Baggy Greens.
He told reporters: "Tomorrow will be my last ODI game for Australia. I've just spoken to my teammates, spoken to James Sutherland and Rod Marsh and Darren Lehmann and informed them that tomorrow will be my last ODI game for Australia.
"I'm extremely thankful and grateful - I've just found out that tomorrow will be my 245th one-day game - it's been an honour and a privilege to represent my country for that amount of games. I'm grateful to every player I have been lucky enough to play with and this team is no exception to that.
"I'm hopeful it will prolong my Test career as well. That's obviously a priority for me, to continue to be successful in the Test format. I think by walking away from one-day cricket it probably gives me my best opportunity."
Clarke has played 244 one-day internationals for the Baggy Greens, scoring 7,907 runs at an average of 44.42.
Simon Sinclair
