Yorkshire batsman Joe Sayers has announced his retirement from first-class cricket.

The left-handed opener, from Otley, only turned 30 in November, but he has endured a frustrating last two seasons, scoring only 222 runs from ten LV= County Championship matches at an average of 15.85.

In all, Sayers scored 4,855 runs at an average of 32.58 from 97 first-class matches for Yorkshire, with 25 fifties and nine hundreds.

The former Guiseley and Cleckheaton player also captained Oxford University in 2003, where he gained a degree in physics. He was also on the books at Bradford City as a goalkeeper before opting to pursue a career in cricket.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed my time as a professional cricketer with Yorkshire,” said Sayers, who suffered from Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome in 2010.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody associated with the club, in particular the supporters, and I wish the lads all the best for the 2014 season.”

Yorkshire’s chairman Colin Graves said: “Joe is a great guy, and I would like to thank him for his contribution over the last few years and wish him well in the future.”

A former pupil at St Mary’s School in Menston, Sayers was selected to captain England under-14s against India.

Sayers went on to play once for the England Lions in a friendly against Australia in August 2009, subsequently touring South Africa on an England Performance Programme camp.

That was where his illness problems started because he picked up gastroenteritis in Pretoria.

The 2009 summer was the most successful of his career, with him scoring 1,150 runs from 17 first-class matches.

That popular Sayers has left Yorkshire is no great surprise. That he has left the game altogether is.