Cricket: Taylor signs with Durham for Twenty20 league

New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor has further extended his Twenty20 cricket CV by signing with English county champions Durham.

Taylor, 25, and South African allrounder Albie Morkel were announced as overseas players for the English Twenty20 league by the county, with Taylor to join the squad before their first fixture on June 4.

He could yet qualify for four teams in the lucrative Champions League tournament in India later this year.

He has already played for New Zealand Twenty20 champions Central Districts and Australian domestic winners Victoria while his Royal Challengers Bangalore team are through to the semifinals of the Indian Premier League.

Taylor is the solitary New Zealand cricketer left in the IPL after Brendon McCullum, Shane Bond and Dan Vettori's teams missed out on the playoffs on net run rate.

Taylor's Bangalore will face Mumbai Indians in the first semifinal in Mumbai early tomorrow after the top-four were decided. Chennai Super Kings play Deccan Chargers in the other semifinal.

Both semifinals were shifted to Mumbai because of safety concerns after the bomb blast outside the Bangalore stadium on Saturday. The two finalists and the third placegetter will qualify for the Champions League.

Meanwhile, senior test paceman Chris Martin has been signed by Essex on a short-term deal. Martin will be the county's overseas player until early May as cover for Pakistan legspinner Danish Kaneria.

* Former New Zealand captain and India's first overseas coach John Wright says he is interested in coaching an IPL team if an opportunity arises.

Wright was in New Delhi to launch a scholarship named after him by the Invercargill-based Southern Institute of Technology.

"There is a lot of pressure to perform in this form of the game, but I am not averse to taking up the assignment. Given the opportunity I may coach an IPL team."

The IPL is due to be expanded by two teams. Wright said he has had talks but no decision had been taken.

* Holders Pakistan drafted left-arm spinner Abdul Rehman into their squad for the Twenty20 World Cup in the Caribbean that starts next week.

Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ejaz Butt asked the selectors to pick Rehman instead of Mohammad Irfan, who was not on their list of 30 players from which the squad had to be chosen.

- AGENCIES