WICKET-KEEPER Chris Warn has become the second player to turn his back on Suffolk ahead of the coming season.

Warn, the county’s second most successful wicket-keeper in terms of number of dismissals, has joined all-rounder Ben France in asking to be de-registered by Suffolk ahead of the forthcoming Minor Counties Championship campaign.

Warn, like France, has become disenchanted with the way the team is being run.

He said: “I have been available for every game apart from one over the last 13 years, and although I can’t remember how many training sessions I have missed, it is not many. After the commitment I have given it is a shame to see my Suffolk career end like this.

“After 13 years of playing for Suffolk and missing only one game, I am regrettably leaving. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time, however over the last couple of years, myself and other senior players have become increasingly dissatisfied with the running of the club, which has inevitably led to poor results.

“However, I love the club and am speaking out because although I am leaving, I would like to pave the way for younger cricketers who deserve to play for a club, which has in the past, and can be (with changes) in the future, an outstanding side once again.”

Since making his debut for Suffolk in 2000, Warn has been an ever-present in the side apart from missing a single one-day match in 2002 when he was invited to play for Derbyshire against the touring Indians in a one-day match.

In total Warn played in 79 championship matches for Suffolk, scoring 2,743 runs in 117 innings at an average of 27.70, with two centuries and 16 fifties.

He scored 115 not out against Northumberland at Jesmond in 2011, when he featured in a record unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 293 – just two runs short of the county’s all-time record for any wicket – with Hassan Adnan.

Warn also holds the record for the highest sixth-wicket partnership of 160 with current captain Justin Bishop, set against Cumberland at Mildenhall in 2005, when Warn made his highest score of 165 not out.

In addition, the 33-year-old took 188 catches and made 20 stumpings in the Minor Counties Championship, and his total of 208 dismissals mean he is the second most successful wicket-keeper in Suffolk’s history behind Stuart Westley.

The former Framlingham College master, who made his debut in 1973 and featured in 97 championship matches, completed 238 dismissals – 193 caught and 45 stumped – during his Suffolk career.

Warn also played a total of 42 MCCA Trophy matches – he was a member of Suffolk’s winning side against Cheshire at Lord’s in 2007 – scoring 597 runs in 34 innings, and a further seven matches in the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy, scoring 136 runs in seven innings, giving him a one-day batting average of 23.64.

He also took 44 catches and made 15 stumpings in one-day matches.