Nathan Astle retired on Friday, citing a lack of motivation ahead of the World Cup. But Richard Boock, in the NZ Herald, reads between the lines and finds Astle's reasoning doesn't add up.

So, what about the idea that coach John Bracewell and the management team have approached Astle, offering to assist him through a dignified retirement rather than announcing that he's been axed? It's certainly worth considering, not only because Astle seems to have lost the hand-eye co-ordination that made him such a threat in previous years, but also because of the remarks he made about retirement last month.At the time, Astle was being interviewed in the lead-up to the first test against Sri Lanka and his comments then contrasted wildly with the slightly rehearsed reasoning he came out with yesterday.