Joe Scuderi has announced his retirement from international cricket after Italy's defeat to Afghanistan at the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 4.

However, he will stay on as Italy's coach as it looks to make up for the disappointment of failing to gain promotion to Division 3 in Argentina in January.

'I am retired as a player now. I was going to keep playing for as long as our campaign went for the next World Cup but its obviously ended now,' said Scuderi.

'You can't keep playing for ever – I'm 40 in December and my time has come now and perhaps it is time for Italian cricket not to rely on me as much as it has done for the last 10 years.

'I've been lucky to play first-class cricket. I've played for South Australia and Lancashire and seen the world, played with Italy and travelled to parts of the world that you would never have imagined I would have gone to were it not for cricket.'

Scuderi also admitted that he was bitterly disappointed by the manner of the defeat to Afghanistan, as Italy were looking strong at 62-1 chasing 235 to win.

'I am gutted. We blew it. 234 was a reasonable score by them but it was very gettable. The wicket is pretty good and the outfield is obviously quick. We were going alright but we pushed the panic button,' said Scuderi.

'I explained to the guys that can you probably have one run out but if you have four it means you panicked and the pressure of the situation got to us. Unfortunately it's happened to us before as well.'