On Friday, the 36-year-old Irish international wicketkeeper-batsman Niall O’Brien announced his retirement from the professional cricket.

Niall O’Brien was the part of historical Ireland cricket teams that have played the nation’s maiden T20I and Test cricket. In his 12-year-long international career, Niall played only Test, 103 ODIs and 30 T20Is for Ireland where he scored a total of 3,065 runs (18 runs in Tests, 2,581 runs in ODIs and 466 in T20Is). The left-handed batsman scored 19 half-centuries (18 in ODIs and one in T20I) and one century (in ODI) in the international cricket.

Also read: Former English opener Nick Compton retires from cricket

Niall finished as the third most ODI matches player for Ireland and fifth most international cricket matches player for Ireland. He featured in three ICC Cricket World Cups (2007, 2011 and 2015) and four ICC World T20s (2009, 2010, 2012 and 2016).

On his retirement, Niall said, “It is with a heavy heart that I am announcing my retirement from international and professional cricket. I have been blessed to have been lucky enough to have represented my country for 16 years with plenty more ups than downs and for this I look back with nothing but smiles and laughter.

“I would like to thank all my coaches and teammates who along the way have helped me become the player I was. I have had too many coaches to mention them all but a special thanks must go to Adrian “Adi” Birrell who took a chance on me in 2002 and who arranged a trial at Kent from where I started my 14-year county career which was an absolute privilege and an honour.”

Also read: Young Hong Kong wicketkeeper-batsman Christopher Carter announced retirement

Niall played 176 first-class matches, 238 List A matches and 147 T20s where the left-handed batsman scored 9,057 runs (average 35.51), 5,700 runs (average 30.31) and 2,329 runs (average 21.36) respectively. Niall also picked up two wickets in his professional career and he took both in the first-class career.