Kolkata : Former New Zealand skipper and iconic Batter Kane Williamson has revealed that he spoke to Indian legend Virat Kohli a day before Kane’s retirement from international Cricket.
Kane ended his career being New Zealand’s leading run scorer across formats with 19,346 runs, including 48 centuries and six double-centuries before hanging boots in June 2026. He also retired from Tests last year with 9,515 runs, 33 centuries and six double-centuries with less than 500 runs to achieve iconic milestone of 10,000 Test runs. Even Kohli also retired from Tests with 9230 runs. Both these retirement surprised many.
Speaking on the Between Two Beers Podcast, Williamson said his conversation with Kohli helped him gain clarity about his decision. The two icons of respective countries faced almost similar kind of hardships regarding Batting form and leadership roles during team’s transition phase.
“I spoke to a number of people I trust and I’ve been really, really close with. And then I actually had a really, really cool chat with Virat like the day before I announced it and it was really like looking in the mirror, just sharing the experiences that we’ve had in the game for so long,” Williamson said.
He said their shared experiences had helped them develop a special bond, despite playing in different teams and cricketing environments. Their conversation touched on the challenges of captaincy, family life and the emotions involved in stepping away from the game.
“He made some of those big decisions and that, like honestly, just cheering… There’s no one else I think, even players in your own team at times, that have just been in that exact same position for the exact same length of time, captaincy roles, children at the same time. Like we sort of live this parallel thing,” he added.
Williamson said the discussion centred on how their approach to cricket and motivation had evolved after 16 years in the game. Having spent much of their careers striving to improve themselves and their teams, they recognised that changing priorities could alter their relationship with the sport.
He admitted that he had begun to feel a shift in his motivation and did not want to continue playing for reasons that no longer reflected his personal ambitions.
“We were talking a lot about that pursuit… every day is how do I get better, how do I get this team better every day. And you do it for a long time, your life changes and for the better,” he said.
“But you do have to put it down, and your life does change and therefore you can find yourself in positions that you’re doing things for reasons that aren’t yours. I don’t think you can do that for a long time,” he added.
Williamson said he wanted to retire while his decision remained true to his own feelings rather than continue playing to satisfy public expectations or chase statistical milestones.
He also insisted that reaching 10,000 Test runs had never been a personal target or a driving force behind his career. He felt that continuing simply to achieve the landmark would have been inconsistent with his reasons for playing.
“You can start playing for the gallery. You can start holding on or doing things for reasons that aren’t just… pure, maybe for your own measure of it, but that aren’t just you that drive you back to the craft and to being a part of the team,” he said.
Williamson added that success should not be judged solely by averages, centuries or career milestones, arguing that such numbers could become limitations rather than meaningful measures of achievement.
“Every interview I did, they would ask about it and they were never the things that drove me. It wasn’t a number. It wasn’t to get to 10,000 runs,” he said.
“I genuinely believe that if that was a goal of mine at the start, I wouldn’t be close. We wouldn’t sit here and even reference it, because what is your definition of success? Is it an average? Is it a certain number of hundreds?” he added.
