After a distinguished career that produced more than 10,000 first-class runs for Auckland, Central Districts and, finally, Northern Districts; national titles in every format; and 24 Test caps for New Zealand, Raval said the time is right to step away from the game he loves. Former New Zealand Test opener Jeet Raval has announced his retirement from all professional cricket, Northern Districts Cricket said on Friday.
Raval focused on cricket and went on to make his New Zealand debut in 2016. The last time he played for the Kiwis was in 2020. In 24 Tests for New Zealand, Raval scored 1,143 runs.
In India they call it biodata, so my mom told me that and then I understood. I wrote the word ‘biodata’ on the top and I put my name, my mom’s name, my dad’s name, my date of birth, and I said there’s my CV. And I never heard back from them,” Raval told ESPNcricinfo.
“I went to Subway and they asked me if I could hand in my CV. I didn’t know what a CV was, so I called my mom and asked, ‘What’s a CV? I asked for a piece of paper and a pen and they didn’t have any paper, so they gave me a tissue paper. He also slammed one century and seven half-centuries.
He amassed 8,216 runs in the competition since his debut for Auckland in the 2008-09 season. He played 24 Test matches for New Zealand, scoring more than 1,000 runs at an average of 30, including seven fifties and a century. After 12 seasons of first-class cricket with Auckland and Central Districts, Jeet Raval saw the light in 2020 and made the move to Northern Districts. He played more than 130 games for ND across the three formats, many of them as captain. Under his leadership, Northern Districts ended a 12-season wait for the Plunket Shield title. When he reached his 10,000th first-class run in December 2025, while captaining ND against Auckland in his adopted hometown, he became only the 30th New Zealander to join that distinguished club.
Raval’s retirement leaves big shoes to fill as captain of the Northern Districts Plunket Shield team. Only three players in history have scored more Plunket Shield runs than Raval. He also has one Test wicket. Australian captain Pat Cummins probably still has nightmares about being clean bowled by a Jeet Raval leg-spinner. The tally includes international matches (Tests and other first-class matches for the likes of New Zealand A) as well as overseas stints.
