Boje leaves Northamptonshire

Nicky Boje, right, handed over the Northants captaincy to compatriot Andrew Hall earlier in an injury-hit year

Former Northamptonshire captain Nicky Boje has played his last game for the county, having returned to his native South Africa.

Boje, who played 43 Tests and 116 limited-over internationals for South Africa, spent four seasons at Wantage Road and skippered the side for two-and-a-half years before resigning in June.

The 37-year-old has struggled with back and finger injuries over the past two seasons, the latter restricting him to a single match since July, last weekend’s Clydesdale Bank 40 match against the Netherlands in Rotterdam.

Boje signed a one-year extension to his contract last year, but he was unable to see it through, and will return to prepare for the Warriors’ Champions League Twenty20 campaign.

"I'd like to thank everyone at Northants for making my time here as enjoyable as it has been," he said.

"I said to a couple of guys, 'If you'd said that I'd have played county cricket for three years I'd have said you were mad'.

"Finishing off with the broken finger and not being able to play in a crucial part of the season isn't the ideal way to go but that's how it is."

Boje was unable to end Northants’ trophy drought, which - the 2000 County Championship Division Two title notwithstanding - stretched back to the 1992 Benson & Hedges Cup win.

But the South African led the county to within a point of promotion last season, a season in which the Steelbacks also reached their first Twenty20 finals day.

Boje’s finest performance was probably the career-best, unbeaten 226, which allowed Northants to save a championship match against Worcestershire in 2008.

"It was good to captain the side for a couple of years and to see the progress that we've made over that time," he added.

"It's disappointing not having a trophy in the cabinet but there's been a lot of moving forward in the last three years which is satisfying."