Kiwi captain Fleming eyeing retirement for ICL: reports

Sydney, July 26 (UNI) After Brian Lara, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, Stephen Fleming is the next high-profile cricketer tipped to join the Indian Cricket League (ICL) bandwagon and the current New Zealand captain is reportedly even contemplating retirement from Test cricket to join the rebel venture.

'The Australian' reported that Fleming has been approached to be part of ICL and may consider retirement to take up the lucrative offer.

Fleming was being sought to captain one of the six proposed teams on a three-year deal worth more than 500,000 dollar a year, the newspaper said.

This comes a day after the same newspaper reported that Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath were negotiating with ICL, with Warne believed to be in line for almost two-million dollar pay package over three years if an agreement can be reached.

Brian Lara became ICL's first major signing on Monday for 500,000 dollar a year.

Thirtyfour-year-old Fleming is playing county cricket in England. He retired from one-day cricket after the Caribbean World Cup but is due to lead the New Zealand Test team to South Africa in late October and November, when the first ICL Twenty20 tournament is due to be played.

Fleming is New Zealand's leading run scorer with 6620 averaging 39.64 from 104 Tests. He has led the Kiwis in 80 of those matches, making him the second-longest-serving captain in Test history behind Allan Border, who led Australia for 93 matches.

Meanwhile, Dean Jones, one of a number of high-profile ICL officials, confirmed that the recently retired Damien Martyn had rejected an approach but refused to discuss other players, claiming he had signed a confidentiality clause.

''We've spoken to a lot of players around the world and haven't had too many knock-backs.

''We're not asking any players to break any contracts with their board, far from it,'' Jones said.

Meanwhile, other international cricketers reported to have been approached include Kiwi fast bowler Shane Bond and recently retired Sri Lankan all-rounder Russel Arnold.

Interestingly, Cricket Australia (CA) yesterday claimed that it would not allow any of its national or state contracted players, to play in any kind of the game which is not officially sanctioned by the ICC.

However, the 46-year-old former Aussie played own the isuue saying that the Essel Group-backed private league will work as angel for the development of the game as a whole and will groom young talents from India and other countries.

''The term rebel has been used in an unfortunate way (to describe the new league). I think we're more like angels really,'' Jones said.

''Potentially what we're about is trying to find young Indian kids to represent India, as well as potential young players from Kenya and Zimbabwe and maybe some under-19s boys from Australia.

They're better off playing in this sort of league than playing club cricket for a month,'' he elaborated.

The league which starts in September, proposes to field six teams -- each featuring four international players, two Indian stars and eight upcoming talents -- playing a a Twenty20 tournament at three Indian venues.

UNI