Cricket: Taylor and Hamilton-Brown add to Wellington's leadership

Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor and Surrey county skipper Rory Hamilton-Brown will both play for Wellington in this year's HRV Cup Twenty20 competition.

The pair will join Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan as Wellington's overseas players during the HRV Cup.

Taylor will play the full HRV Cup campaign, while Muralitharan will play the first five rounds, starting on December 18 against the Auckland Aces. Hamilton-Brown will join the team for the remainder of the campaign.

Cricket Wellington director of cricket Robbie Kerr said he was delighted with Wellington's overseas playing roster. "Murali's record over a number of years speaks for itself,'' Kerr said. "He is the greatest Test and ODI wicket taker of all time and to have him in the Firebirds this summer is very exciting.

"Having two captains join our squad will add hugely to the leadership within our team during the HRV Cup competition.''

Taylor, 25, recently led from the front in Zimbabwe's home series against New Zealand, scoring two one-day international centuries and a test century.

In scoring 128 not out and 107 not out in the first two ODIs, he became the first Zimbabwe batsman to score consecutive centuries in one-day cricket. He then scored 75 to set up his team's successful chase as they scored 329 to win. With 310 runs, he was the player of the ODI series. He also scored 50 and 117 in the one-off test match.

In September, Hamilton-Brown starred for Surrey in the final of the English County 40-over competition against Somerset, scoring 78 off 62 balls.

This match-winning innings was the culmination of a successful two seasons for Hamilton-Brown who at the start of 2010, then aged 22, had been selected as Surrey's youngest ever captain.