Veteran's return boosts Northland

The  Northland cricket team to play Counties Manukau this weekend has been boosted by the return of a familiar figure, with Hamish Marshall selected to play at  No3 in the batting line-up.
Marshall trained with Northland on Wednesday night after returning home from playing county cricket in England last week. He also trained with Northern Districts yesterday at Cobham Oval, where he seems to have acquired a new nickname.
His teammates have assigned him the moniker "milk bottles" in apparent reference to his pale legs and skin. It's not all bad though, his skin colour will at least help his teammates and cricket fans in general to tell him apart from his twin brother James, the ND captain.
Hamish, a veteran of dozens of Northland games as well as 11 test matches and 66 ODIs for New Zealand before he switched to his Irish passport to play for Gloucestershire, is eligible to play for Northland as one of two possible overseas players with English professional Richard Kaufman, filling the other spot for the match against Counties.
The game for Northland this weekend will give him a chance to reintroduce himself to New Zealand conditions as well as to some of his old teammates.
"It's actually exciting to get an opportunity to play with some of the lads who were there before and to see some of the new players coming through, the last time I played for Northland must have been two or three seasons ago but it's definitely good to be back, the weather's been pretty nippy over there so it's good to feel the sun on your back again," Hamish said.
With the return of Tillakaratne Dilshan to Sri Lanka after the HRV Twenty20 series, Hamish is once again looking forward to getting stuck into the remainder of the ND season.
"The lads seem to be travelling pretty well and there are some big games ahead so maybe we'll be able to finish in the top two and go straight into the final of the one-day competition," he said.
Hamish is looking forward to contributing to the ND cause, particularly when the Plunket Shield gets under way again later in the month. The 30-year-old said he had a period of poor form with the bat in the middle of the English season but was otherwise pleased with his performance during the county competition.
"I've got a role to play in the side, scoring runs is a priority and I'm determined to do that and hopefully as a group we can achieve something, there are still two trophies up for grabs this season and I'd like to help win one of them at least," he said.