CHRISTCHURCH (New Zealand), June 11: New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming and left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori have signed contracts to play English county cricket this summer, it was announced on Wednesday.

Fleming has signed an 11-week deal with Yorkshire and Vettori inked a five-week contract with Nottinghamshire, as both agreements were endorsed by New Zealand Cricket (NZC).

NZC chief executive Martin Snedden said he was happy for the players to take the opportunity to work on their games in the county environment.

Fleming, who has previously played for Middlesex, will be available to play for Yorkshire from this Saturday until Aug 31.

“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,” Fleming said.

Vettori, the youngest spinner to take 100 Test wickets, will take the place of Australian spinner Stuart McGill in the Nottinghamshire team for the whole of July.

He joins fellow Kiwi Chris Cairns at Trent Bridge in the last week of June and returns to New Zealand in the first week of August.—Reuters/AFP