Vettori primed for Warwickshire debut

Daniel Vettori, New Zealand's left-arm spinner, is expected to make his debut for Warwickshire in English county cricket this weekend. Vettori, whose previous English county experience includes a stint with Nottinghamshire in 2003, is set to play his first game against Yorkshire at Headingley.

"It looks to be a pretty strong set-up at Warwickshire and I'm really looking forward to playing my part in what will hopefully be another successful season," Vettori told nzcricket.co.nz. "Some of the guys here [in the Black Caps] have played quite a bit of county cricket and a full season is something I've wanted to do for a while."

Vettori, 27, has been brought in as cover for Ashley Giles, who is expected to miss out on most of the domestic season due to injury and England duty.

Heath Streak, Warwickshire's captain, told BBC Sport that he expected Vettori to contribute much with his all-round skills. "In Test cricket he has been averaging over 50 with the bat for the past 12 months or so," he said. "Ashley was superb early last season and pretty much won games single-handedly for us and it will be great to have Vettori for a full season. Alex [Loudon] has kicked on, has been with the England A team and improved dramatically over the course of last season. I'm looking forward to Daniel and Alex and, if Ashley plays a few games, which we hope he will, it will be quite a lethal spin attack."

A New Zealand Cricket spokesman said Vettori, who has a history of back problems, had strict conditions built into his contract concerning his bowling workload.