Alex Blackwell, Australia's most-capped female player announce retirement

Alex Blackwell, Australia's most-capped female player, has retired from international and state cricket.

The 34-year-old batter made her Australia debut in 2003 and went on to play 251 matches across the Test, one-day and Twenty20 international formats.

She captained her country to victory at the Women's World T20 in 2010 and also won the competition in 2012 and 2014.

Blackwell scored 5,250 international runs and was also part of Australia's World Cup wins in 2005 and 2013.

In a decorated career that spanned 15 years at the top level, Blackwell scored 5250 runs - 3492 in ODIs, 1314 in T20Is and 444 in Tests - while being one of seven Australian batters to have more than 1000 T20I runs. Blackwell also led Australia to their maiden World T20 title in 2010, and was a part of their winning campaigns in 2012 and 2014. She played an important role when Australia won the World Cup in 2005 and 2013.

More recently serving as national vice-captain, Blackwell - whose identical twin sister Kate also played for Australia between 2004 and 2008 - will continue to play for Sydney Thunder in the Women's Big Bash League.