KEY POINTS:
Black Cap Tama Canning walked away from his Auckland contract just before he was about to be pushed.
The all-rounder, who played four times for New Zealand, turned up late and with a hangover for the final day of the State Championship match against Northern Districts last week - his second major disciplinary breach in two seasons.
Instead he 'retired' and has moved back to Perth, where he was living before joining Auckland in 1999, and will try to develop a career outside the game. Adelaide-born Canning, 29, said he had been considering his cricket future in New Zealand for some time.
Events during what is likely to be his last first-class match hastened matters.
On the final day of Auckland's most recent State Championship match against Northern Districts, Canning, not out overnight, was still nowhere to be seen with less than 20 minutes to go before the first ball was due to be bowled.
He eventually arrived in a taxi just in time, much the worse for wear and wearing the clothes he went out in the night before.
Not surprisingly, Canning failed to add to his overnight score of 1 as Auckland crashed to a heavy defeat.
It was the final straw. Even though Canning was a gregarious and popular team-mate, the Herald on Sunday understands some of his colleagues were furious at his attitude.
"There was an incident at the last game," Auckland Cricket chief executive Andrew Eade said. "We held a hearing following the incident, which is what we do in situations like that, and it hadn't reached the stage of deciding what we were going to do as a flow-on from the incident. Tama himself decided, because he's had a bit of a history of difficulties with commitments I guess, that it was time for him to retire."
Eade said the committee had not reached the stage of discussing whether Canning's contract would have been rescinded.
Players' Association manager Heath Mills was at the meeting between Canning and the ACA. While he said he would have been very surprised if Canning lost his contract over the indiscretions, he was "comfortable" with the process.
"It was apparent Tama realised he was struggling to meet his obligations as a professional cricketer and made the decision to retire and work on his career outside cricket," Mills said.
Canning was one of 12 players contracted by Auckland Cricket, with retainer payments ranging from about $10,000 to $30,000. It is expected Canning would have been near the top of the pay scale. Players are also paid match fees.
Last year, Canning was involved at an incident in an Auckland nightclub where he allegedly urinated over the bar. He told an ACA meeting he had no recollection of the alleged offence but admitted his actions were a contravention of his domestic playing agreement and not in the best interests of Auckland Cricket.
He was fined an undisclosed amount by the ACA and a programme was put in place to try to ensure there was no repeat.
On the field, Canning has been a consistent performer for Auckland, culminating in his selection for New Zealand's tour of Pakistan in 2003. The last of his four ODIs was against Australia at Napier in 2005.
The highlight of Canning's domestic career came in 2003 when he was named Auckland player of the year after a record-breaking season. He took 46 State Championship wickets that season at an average cost of 21.97 runs, breaking John Bracewell's haul of 43 in 1986-87. He also scored 451 first-class runs, averaging 37.58.
- HERALD ON SUNDAY
