Former England Captain Michael Vaughan has announced his retirement from all forms of the game. And his retirement is said to take immediate effect.

The England’s most successful captain has not played for his country since his resignation as captain last year.

The 35-year-old Yorkshire batsman has scored 5,719 Test runs in 82 matches at an average of 41.44 with 18 hundreds and a best of 197 against India at Trent Bridge in 2002.

During his period as the English captain from 2003-2008, Vaughan has had 26 victories, 11 defeats and 14 draws, which makes him England's most successful skipper in terms of overall wins.

Here is what Vaughan has to say about his retirement:

"It has been an enormous privilege to have played for and captained my country and this is one of the hardest decisions I have had to make. Having played almost non-stop for sixteen seasons, I feel that the time is right for the focus to shift to the next generation. We have some fantastic talent coming through the English counties and, with the next Ashes series upon us, now is the time for the younger players to rise to the challenge of building on the success achieved in English cricket in the last few years. I'd like to record my sincere thanks to the England fans and the ECB and the members and supporters of Yorkshire County Cricket Club for their unstinting backing throughout my career as well as my wife Nicola and the rest of my family who have been equally supportive.”