Ed Joyce has announced his retirement from playing all forms of international and domestic cricket.
The legendary Irish opening batsman (39), who also played 17 one day Internationals for England, will take up a new role overseeing leadership development and as a batting coach in the Irish performance system.
Joyce, who made his debut for Ireland against Scotland back in 1997, played over 100 matches for Ireland and his final game was the historic test match against Pakistan earlier this month in Malahide. His final innings was a knock of 43.
Joyce hit six one-day-international centuries and scored over 2,600 runs in the 50-over format.
"I feel now is the right time to stop playing and get started on a new chapter," he told RTÉ Sport. "The recent Test match against Pakistan was such an incredible few days and was the perfect game for me to say was my last in professional cricket.
"I am very grateful to Cricket Ireland for giving me the opportunity to get involved in the coaching set up. I know I have a huge amount to learn about the art of coaching, but I know I also have a huge amount of knowledge that I’m determined to pass on to the next generation of Irish talent."
Ireland head coach Graham Ford paid tribute to the retiring Bray man.
"It is always a sad occasion when a top-quality cricketer calls time on his career," he said. "Ed’s brilliant performance statistics show clearly what an outstanding player he has been.
"Over the years cricketing fans have greatly enjoyed watching many a fine performance from Ed. Sadly his batting qualities will no longer be available to our national team.
"As the national team coach it is however very comforting to know that Ed’s vast cricketing knowledge and experience will still be a part of our system and will play a vital role in developing future Irish cricketing stars."
Having helped Ireland to qualify for the 2007 World Cup, Joyce then declared for England with a stated desire to play Test Match cricket, which at the time looked like it might never happen for Ireland.
Ironically, Joyce made his English debut against his former team-mates in a One Day International in Belfast, scoring ten runs after opening the batting with Marcus Trescothick, who went onto make a century in an England victory.
Joyce also faced Ireland in the 2007 World Cup in Guyana, but was bowled by Boyd Rankin for just one, in another match won by the 'auld enemy'.
During this time he played 17 ODIs and 2 T20s for England, which included scoring a match-winning century against Australia in 2007.
In 2011, Joyce was welcomed back into the Irish fold after getting special dispensation from the International Cricket Council and was part of the Ireland World Cup team that went down in Irish sporting folklore for their win over England in Bangalore.
Joyce also enjoyed a highly successful 16-year county cricket playing career at Middlesex and Sussex - captaining both sides to titles.
"County Cricket has been such a huge part of my life for the last 16 years and I firmly believe there was no better place for me to learn about the game," he said. "I was lucky to have played for two of the best in Middlesex and Sussex"
Irish cricketers will find it harder to play in England from next season however as the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) will count Irish internationals as overseas players in domestic cricket from September 2019.
The ECB tightened the rules in 2009 to limit the number of non-England qualified players in county cricket to one overseas player in a championship match and two in their T20 competition.
"One of the challenges Irish cricket faces now is that we can no longer use county cricket as a finishing school for our youngsters," said Joyce. "We need to produce our own cricketers through our domestic structure and I’m excited to be a part of that journey."
