New Zealand cricket captain Stephen Fleming is to report on his season of county cricket with Middlesex exclusively for CricInfo.

He will join CricInfo's New Zealand stable of columnists which includes leading all rounder Chris Cairns and leading left-arm spin bowler Daniel Vettori.

Fleming made his county debut for Middlesex in cool conditions at Oxford's Parks ground yesterday.

It wasn't an especially auspicious occasion for Fleming, who only left for England on Thursday.

He was out leg before wicket for two runs to 19-year-old Oxford Universities' Centres for Cricket Excellence bowler Thomas Mees.

Mees had an outstanding day to finish with six wickets for 64 runs as Middlesex were all out for 269 runs. The highlight of the Middlesex innings was the maiden century for 24-year-old Middlesex batsman Ben Hutton, the grandson of outstanding English batsman Sir Len Hutton.

Fleming has twice toured England with New Zealand sides after an earlier stint in Northamptonshire where he played some 2nd XI cricket. His first tour was as a relative newcomer to international cricket. He scored 591 runs at an average of 39.40 in his nine matches. In the three Tests on the tour he scored 170 runs at 28.33.

He returned as captain of the side in 1999 to lead New Zealand to a 2-1 series victory over England in the four-Test series.

Again playing nine matches on the tour, he totalled 476 runs at 39.66 and in four Tests he scored 166 runs at 33.20.

Fleming said before leaving New Zealand that he is looking to address the problems that have prevented him scoring as many centuries as he, and his legion of New Zealand supporters, would like.

With 3596 Test runs, Fleming is the third highest run scorer in New Zealand Test history. But it is doubtful that of those players ahead of him on the all-time New Zealand first-class scoring list, many have played as few games for provinces as the 25 Fleming has played for Canterbury during his career.

Glenn Turner played 59 games for Otago, plus several for Northern Districts. Bert Sutcliffe played 60 games for Otago, plus 22 others for ND and John Wright 43 for ND and more for Canterbury. They are just some examples of those ahead of Fleming and the first-class cricket they played. That is not to forget the county match play that Turner and Wright enjoyed.

That lack of first-class play probably best highlights the problem Fleming has had in developing the century-making habit. He has not had long stints away from the international game to work on his batting.

He has played 123 first-class games, including his 60 Test matches, and has now played 152 One-Day Internationals, which leaves little time for domestic cricket.

It is notable in his busiest season, almost twice as busy as any domestic season he played, he had 10 first-class games at home in 1993/94 and scored two centuries.

He played only one Shell Trophy game last year and none this year.

Fleming's time in Middlesex will allow him the longest stint of first-class play since that 1993/94 season.

CricInfo will ensure that New Zealanders are able to monitor his progress closely.

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