Fleming eyes county captaincy - but in the future

By Lynn McConnell
From nzcricket.co.nz, 13 January 2003

Among the various goals that New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming still has in cricket is to spend a couple of years captaining an English county side.

The first New Zealand men's skipper to hold aloft a winner's trophy in a one-day tournament, the 2000 ICC KnockOut tournament trophy in Kenya, Fleming made the comment when discussing the New Zealand players taking part in English county cricket this year when having injury problems at home.

Chris Cairns is to play for Nottinghamshire this year, Shane Bond for Warwickshire and Nathan Astle to Derbyshire.

"Everyone is concerned when they are carrying injuries with what they can do and what they can't. But what we have found is that the counties are very accommodating in terms of the programme that can be put in place.

"I've found it very beneficial to have our players in their and involved and I'm sure the three players concerned can get benefit out of it. Chris Cairns is a little bit different, he's played a lot more in the past and he knows his body a bit better.

"His is probably going to be more of a batting role than an all-rounding role for Notts but the guidelines laid out by the medical panel have been pretty clear.

"There's always concern when you send players off, but there's also benefits if they are managed right."

Fleming said he would like to play county cricket but possibly not for a couple of years.

He felt he needed time to recharge mentally after three or four seasons on the track but in the future he would like to have a crack at captaining a county.