Craig Spearman has left Gloucestershire a year before his contract was due to end.

The New Zealander, 37, joined Gloucestershire in 2002, when he was talked out of a career in finance by John Bracewell.

Since then, Spearman has often been viewed as Gloucestershire CCC's premier batsman, in four-day and one-day cricket.

However, he was absent for nearly all the second half of the 2008 season after he was struck by a delivery from Northants' Johannes van der Wath and suffered a damaged eye socket.

He struggled to win a regular place in the Gloucestershire side this summer and did not play at all after the Championship game with Derbyshire in mid-July.

Spearman said: "I have had an immensely enjoyable eight years at Gloucestershire and I would like to thank my colleagues and the members for their wonderful support.

"I will miss the club and wish them every success for the future."

Bracewell said: "Craig has been an outstanding servant over a number of years for GCCC, capturing a number of record-breaking performances which will place him high in the status of great Gloucestershire batsmen, and his experience will be missed."

Spearman posted the highest individual innings in Gloucestershire history when he scored 341 against Middlesex at the King's School ground, Gloucester, in 2004. It eclipsed a 128-year-old record previously held by WG Grace.

He played 19 Tests and 51 one-day internationals for New Zealand, all of which came before he joined Gloucestershire.

He scored 13,021 first-class runs, at an average of 37.85, and passed 1,000 runs in a season for Gloucestershire on three occasions.

● Gloucestershire CCC batsman Will Porterfield has been named the Associate Player of the Year at the ICC awards ceremony in Johannesburg.

Porterfield captained Ireland in the Twenty20 World Cup.

The associate award is given to someone from a non-Test playing country.