On Thursday, the veteran Black caps opener Michael Papps has announced his retirement from first class cricket. The 38-year-old, Michael Papps, who made his first class debut way back in March 1999 for Canterbury versus Otago. Michael Papps scored magnificent 12294 runs at an impressive average of 38.66 in first class cricket career. And also in ‘List-A’ career scored 5810 runs in his 166 matches and highest score of 162 runs. Michael Papps has scored 45 century overall in his domestic career.

In October 2016, when Michael Papps scored a fine hand of 57 runs for Wellington versus Auckland, he became the first cricketer to compile over 10000 Plunket Shield runs. Papps also topped the batting charts during the 2017-18 Plunket Shield season, scoring 814 runs at an impressive average of over 50. During the course of the season, he cracked his highest individual first class score of 316 not out against Auckland. He was also appointed as Wellington's captain during the 2015-16 first class season. The seasoned opener ends his first-class career with 33 hundreds and 239 dismissals which is impressive.

In his noteworthy first class career, Papps played for both Canterbury and Wellington. After playing 95 first class games and composing 6,663 runs for Canterbury, he joined Wellington in July 2011. Papps, who first came into the national reckoning when he averaged a healthy 57.87 in the State Shield in 2003-04, also played eight Tests and six ODIs for the country. Papps accumulated 207 runs at an average of 51.75 in ODI cricket. He aggregated his highest individual ODI score of 92 not out in his very first ODI series versus South Africa in Napier in 2004.