New Zealand cricket captain Stephen Fleming will play cricket for Middlesex next northern summer.

Fleming will be available for New Zealand's tours to Sri Lanka in June-July and Pakistan in September-October.

"It's a tremendous opportunity for me to develop my game and while I thoroughly enjoy captaining the CLEAR Black Caps, the chance to concentrate on my batting with first-class and one-day matches almost every day of the week for near enough to six months is too good to miss," Fleming said.

Fleming announced today that a deal had been finalised which would allow him to leave for Britain at the end of the National Bank series against Pakistan at the end of March.

New Zealand Cricket chief executive Christopher Doig sad: "We are absolutely delighted for Stephen and totally support of the move. There's no doubt our cricket will benefit from the experience he gains.

"Apart from the immediate application for the Sri Lankan and Pakistan tours, the CLEAR Black Caps are scheduled to play three Tests in Australia before Christmas next year, come home for a Boxing Day Test against Bangladesh, return to Australia for the World Series [Carlton Series] in tandem with South Africa before hosting England at home for a full series in February-March 2002," he said.

The Middlesex move was a heaven-sent opportunity for Stephen to round out his internationally significant skills as a batsman and we wish him well, he added.

The Middlesex captain, Angus Fraser said: "Having played international cricket for over 10 years, I believe we whave not only acquired a fine player, but one of the most impressive characters in international cricket.

"I have heard only good things talked about Stephen on and off the field and to have captained his country impressively for long at such a young age speaks volumes for the man.

"We at Middlesex have a very young and enthusiastic set of players. I believe working with a player of Stephen's quality will only help them as individuals and us as a team.

"Middlesex has had a fine line-up of overseas players going from Wayne Daniel to Desmond Haynes to Justin Langer. In Stephen Fleming we have a worthy addition to this list," he said.

© CricInfo