Cricket: Flem eyes the end

Black Caps skipper Stephen Fleming will consider retiring from cricket after the 2007 World Cup.

Speaking to the Herald on Sunday from Harare on the eve of the first test against Zimbabwe, the country's top test run-scorer acknowledged he was never going to reach the statistical milestones he had aimed for when he started his test career 13 years ago.

Fleming is taking a break from a successful spell in charge of English county side Nottinghamshire, who were leading the championship when he left to join the Black Caps on their controversial tour. And he admitted one reason he has denied himself an off-season was to hone his leadership skills in advance of a life outside cricket in the near future.

He said: "I haven't got that long left in the game and the time I have got left I want to keep learning and developing skills that will hold me in good stead after I've finished playing cricket.

"Part of that is leadership, learning to captain and lead a different set of players. I've certainly been challenged at Notts, and enjoyed every minute of it."

Fleming said he hadn't put an exact date on retirement but would consider his future after the World Cup in the West Indies early next year. "It's still pretty open-ended but a lot of players are looking at the 2007 World Cup as a point to reflect and decide how much longer they have in the game - I'm in that category.

"I'm loving my cricket at the moment, my body feels good, my mind is fresh... but it's not like I can go on until I'm 60."

When he does retire, Fleming's legacy will take some toppling - most test wins as captain, most tests, most runs, most catches, most half-centuries. But he freely admits: "My stats won't measure up at the end of my career to what I would have liked, so I've had a different focus on my game.

"It's the way I'm striking the ball and the way I'm composed in the middle. I've found other ways of getting my satisfaction rather than statistical.

"In the long run I will make up some ground, but I've certainly lost a lot by getting so many 50s without going on to score big 100s. That's where you get your average up to the mid-40s, rather than the high-30s."

Fleming averages 38.64 in tests and is poised to cross the 6000 runs threshold.

Tonight's test will be his 95th - and it excites him more than most. For the first time in what seems an eternity, he has a near full-strength team and a genuine pace bowler to turn to.

"It's fantastic and is something we've been waiting for for quite some time. To get the calibre of players we have together in one squad is refreshing.

"It's disappointing on the other hand to look back at the cricket we've played at not full strength."

He'll enjoy handing the new ball to Shane Bond, on the comeback trail after more than a year out of international cricket.

"It certainly makes me a better captain: there are more things I can try and it makes the New Zealand cricket team a better team.

"The biggest positive is we've got a spearhead in the pace attack that the likes of Chris Martin, Kyle Mills and James Franklin can feed off and get confidence," said Fleming.

One of those three will be 12th man tonight and miss the test along with Jacob Oram, who was not considered solely as a batsman, Paul Wiseman and the injured Craig Cumming.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY