New Zealand news – Jeet Raval announces retirement from professional cricket

Jeet Raval, who played 24 Test matches for New Zealand between 2016 and 2020, has announced his retirement from professional cricket ahead of the 2026-27 domestic season.

“It’s with a great honour and a privilege that I made this decision,” Raval told Northern Districts Cricket Association. “I feel at peace and very content. The childhood dream [was] obviously to play for Black Caps and I look back with pride. It wasn’t just my dream, [but] also my father’s dream as well. We saw an opportunity and he moved the family here so I could have an opportunity to live my dream.”

Raval, who turned 38 in September, brought down the curtain on a career that began in December 2008, when he made his first-class debut for Auckland against a touring West Indian side after emigrating from the Indian state of Gujarat to Auckland in his teens.

He had been Parthiv Patel’s opening partner when they played for Vidyanagar School in Ahmedabad. Although he started in the middle order for Auckland after moving to New Zealand, he became one of the most successful openers in New Zealand domestic cricket. He opened the batting in 285 of his 292 first-class innings, scoring 10,127 runs at an average of 37.36, including 23 centuries in that position.

In December 2025, while captaining Northern Districts, he became the 30th New Zealander to join the 10,000-run club in first-class cricket. His final competitive game was for ND, against Central Districts, in March earlier this year in the previous Plunket Shield.

In all, Raval racked up 8662 runs in the four-day Plunket Shield. Only Michael Papps (11,463), Matthew Sinclair (8842), and Peter Fulton (8719) have scored more runs than Raval in the history of the competition.

Raval made his Test debut for New Zealand in Christchurch in 2016 against Pakistan and needed 28 innings to score his first century – his only one – to go with seven half-centuries. He was part of the New Zealand squad during the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, which they won in June 2021. Raval was also part of a week-long, nationwide tour with the Test mace following the title win.

“It was one of the most successful times in our Test history when I was part of the team, and we had a great team and we had a lot of success along the way as well,” Raval said. “I really enjoyed contributing to the team. Early in my career, I hadn’t got a hundred, but I was still getting the starts and helping the team build that foundation.

“I remember there being a lot of external pressure to score a hundred, but internally, Kane [Williamson], Ross [Taylor] and the other senior players never made it feel like I hadn’t scored a hundred. They always made me feel like I was contributing, which was huge, and made me feel quite at ease. In the latter part of my career, I sort of had my form fall away in a series against England and a big series in Australia – a place we hadn’t toured for years.

“I think I had a couple of games where I didn’t quite perform where I was required to perform. And then, unfortunately, they [team management] decided to go another way… I was disappointed, but also happy that somebody else did the job that the team needed at the time.”

In New Zealand domestic cricket, he was a stalwart, representing Auckland, CD and ND. Apart from being a steady presence at the top of the order, Raval was widely respected as a leader in New Zealand cricket circles and was a reliable slip fielder. He captained ND to their first Plunket Shield title win in 2024-25 after more than a decade.

“From an ND perspective, Jeet has been the ultimate senior pro and leader since joining us,” the team’s general manager of cricket Ian Sandbrook said in a statement. “His runs (and wickets!) and calm leadership will be missed. More than anything, though, Jeet is a great man. Respected, loyal, and an outstanding team-mate that has always given his best.”

During ND’s drought-breaking Plunket Shield win, Raval also pitched in with his part-time legspin, claiming 14 wickets at just 11.14, including his maiden five-for. ND went in with four-five quicks for a major chunk of the season, with Raval contributing with his slow bowling, making use of the footmarks created by Neil Wagner and Co.

In List A cricket, Raval featured in 96 games, scoring 2714 runs at an average of 30.15. In T20s, he made 1484 runs at an average of 21.50 and a strike rate of 121.44.

More recently, during the latter stages of his career, Raval had a crack at coaching, being an assistant to head coach Tarun Nethula with the Samoa team.

Off the field, Raval has been practicing as a chartered accountant for an auditing firm, which will likely be his full-time job for now.

Deivarayan Muthu is a senior sub-editor at Cricinfo

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