Sean Williams lured back by Zimbabwe

Sean Williams has made a dramatic u-turn and agreed to play for Zimbabwe against Bangladesh next month after being personally lured back by Zimbabwe coach Kevin Curran.

Williams, who is playing club cricket for Clara Vale in the Northumberland First Division in Newcastle, has agreed to return home to play against Bangladesh and then return to England to fulfil his contractual agreement until the end of the season.

The move has infuriated his father Colin who is opposed to his son playing under the current Zimbabwe Cricket regime under Peter Chingoka.

"Curran phoned me and asked me to play in the one-day games against Bangladesh," Williams said. "I am definitely coming home next month to play. I am being given a hard time by my father over that decision - as usual - but will play anyway because, I have made my decision, I want to play and try and make a name for myself and hopefully it works out."

Clara Vale have agreed to release Williams for the duration of Bangladesh matches as Zimbabwe Cricket are paying for his flights.

The 19-year-old Williams, who bats in the middle order and bowls left-arm spin, turned down a contract offer from Zimbabwe Cricket in March as he sought a career abroad. When he left two weeks ago, he even hinted that he was going to try and qualify to play for another country other than Zimbabwe. It seems the prospect of playing at the World Cup lured Williams to have a change of mind.

His father Colin is angry that his son has decided to come back and play. The senior Williams has always been critical of the ZC leadership and came close to pulling his son out of Zimbabwe team for the Under-19 World Cup held in Sri Lanka in February this year.

Curran is understood to have approached a number of players who have turned their backs on Zimbabwe in recent times with the view of bolstering his squad ahead of the Champions Trophy set for India in October and next year's World Cup in the Caribbean.

Curran is reportedly in England to meet with a number of former players who prematurely retired from international cricket in protest against the Chingoka-led administration. His targets are believed to include former Zimbabwe captain Tatenda Taibu, allrounder Gavin Ewing, and former Zimbabwe U-19 allrounder Colin De Grandhomme.

Zimbabwe host Bangladesh in five ODIs at the end of next month.