Spearman hints at England career

Craig Spearman, the former New Zealand batsman, may end up playing for England some time in the future. Spearman has been playing for Gloucestershire for the past two years and has been in thumping form, especially this season.

Spearman, 32, played 19 Test and 51 one-dayers for New Zealand between 1995 and 2001, but after failing to hold down a regular place, he left for England to take up a career in banking. However, John Bracewell, the then Gloucestershire coach, persuaded Spearman to play county cricket - and he hasn't looked back since.

Playing as a non-overseas player due his Welsh mother, Spearman recently scored a mammoth 341 for against Middlesex in the County Championship, eclipsing a 128-year-old record previously held by WG Grace for the highest score by a Gloucestershire player. He also scored an unbeaten hundred against Yorkshire to guide Gloucestershire to their second successive C&G Trophy final at Lord's.

Spearman is also way on top of Gloucestershire's averages this season at over 67 with two hundreds, and he has revealed that turning out in England colours could be a possibility. "At the moment I don't think I'm eligible for anyone - and I'm not sure exactly when I will be," he said. "The day I am eligible [for England] I might probably start thinking about it a lot more. If I became eligible and I was in the reckoning then, of course, I would love to play."

He also insisted that England was now his home, and that he wouldn't be returning to New Zealand. "I am committed to Gloucestershire and cricket in England. I feel settled here and I really do think of this as home. I have been back to New Zealand as an overseas player, but I have not felt as if I am entrenched in cricket there any more and I feel much more at home here."

He added that the packed schedule of county cricket has helped his batting. "I feel I have definitely improved since I came to England and started playing county cricket," he said. "Playing more cricket is a big help to me. As a batsman, playing five days a week you really get to know your game. It has certainly helped me to mature as a cricketer and has been of great benefit. You know you are going to get at least a couple of innings every week. Yes, you will come in and out of form a bit maybe - and all players are different. But on the whole it has been amazing for me."

If Spearman did play for England, he would be the 14th player in Test history to turn out for two different countries, the latest being Kepler Wessels, who played for Australia and then South Africa. Click here for the full list.