Sydney, Sep 13 (IANS) Former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming seriously considered joining the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) after he was told three weeks ago he was being sacked as the country’s Test captain.
However, he has no regrets about staying with the national side and wants to tour England next May and June, Fleming told New Zealand’s Dominion Post.
Fleming, who had been New Zealand captain for ten years, told the Thursday edition of the newspaper that the ICL had offered him $500,000 to play in their month-long Twenty20 tournament.
“When John (Bracewell) told me the news I had to stand down and think about what I wanted to do, the rebel thing was certainly one of the options,” said Fleming.
“It was stupid not to acknowledge that it was ridiculous money so I had to sit down with the family and work out what I wanted to do and where it would fit in.
“But I’m happy to stay with the established side and I’ve chosen this route and now I hope I’ve got some good Test runs left. I think people would have understood if I had gone because I had set my sights on leading the Test team and to have that changed so dramatically took some time to digest. Effectively I had lost my job so there was a lot of emotion flying around.”
Fleming quit as captain of New Zealand’s one-day side after the World Cup semi-final exit and was hoping a policy of split captains would work in the short-term. However, he later discovered the selectors were unhappy with that decision and he “started to get a bit nervous” about the Test captaincy.
“I felt we were in an unique position where I had a huge amount of experience and Daniel was very confident about what he wanted to achieve so there was never going to be a power battle,” Fleming said.
“We never seem able to get both forms of the game going so I thought the experiment could work through to the end of the England tour.”
Fleming still hopes to make the trip to England but it will be only as a batsman.
It will bring back memories of what he called his finest moment in charge of the Test side, leading New Zealand to a 2-1 series win in England in 1999. He had been hoping to add a series triumph in South Africa to his list of achievements but he will now enter that tour, in November, as a player.