Fleming and Vettori to play in county cricket

The New Zealand pair of Stephen Fleming and Daniel Vettori have secured short-term contracts in English county cricket with Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. Fleming has signed an 11-week contract while Vettori will play for five weeks. New Zealand Cricket (NZC) have given their endorsement to the pair.

Fleming, who has also played for Middlesex, expressed a wish to play some more county cricket after coming back from leading New Zealand to success in the Sri Lankan tri-series last month, while Vettori had earlier been in negotiations with Warwickshire.

Martin Snedden, the chief executive of NZC, said he was happy for both players to have the chance to work on their games in the county environment. He pointed out: "Many international players find county cricket beneficial in terms of their development."

It is a significant step for both players as they have shown signs of being close to their best form in recent months. After a long drought, Vettori looked to have regained the sort of touch that made him such a competitive slow bowler before he suffered stress fractures in his back in 1999-2000.

And Fleming had an outstanding season, displaying the best batting form of his recent career, and his highest score in first-class cricket - 274 not out against Sri Lanka.

Fleming, who leaves for England tomorrow and will be available from Saturday until the end of August, will have the opportunity to work on his batting without the worry of captaincy. "I will have the opportunity to share my knowledge and experience with the coach and captain, but my primary job for Yorkshire will be to score runs and take catches," he said. "Right now I feel I'm going through a growth spurt in terms of my batting development, and I want to take every opportunity to consolidate this. There are still things I want to try and areas of my game I want to advance, and during my time with Yorkshire I will have the forum to do this exclusively."

Vettori will temporarily take the place of the legspinner Stuart MacGill in the Nottinghamshire team while MacGill plays in Australia's Tests in Darwin and Cairns.

Vettori said he was looking forward to the experience. "I'm excited about my first taste of county cricket and look forward to a change of environment. The workload will also benefit me. When I start with Nottinghamshire I will have had a six-week break since the end of the Sri Lankan tour, and I will then have another break of over a month at the conclusion of my contract before our tour of India."