Cricket: Auckland hot for Symonds

Auckland cricket are chasing controversial Australian Andrew Symonds to play a cameo role in this year's Twenty20 competition.

Each province is allowed one overseas import for the month-long competition which kicks off in January.

Northern Districts have signed big-hitting Sri Lankan Tillerkaratne Dilshan, Wellington have secured England international Owais Shah and Otago are expected to lure Dimitri Mascarenhas back for another season.

Auckland are also in talks with a current international to play the entire season but are trying to entice Symonds for as little as one game to boost crowd numbers as well as their chances of success if they qualify for next year's Champions League.

Otago will represent New Zealand at this month's Champions League as winners of this year's Twenty20 competition. Teams are allowed as many as four imports for that tournament but they must have played for the province in the domestic competition, as Brendon McCullum did for New South Wales.

The other five provinces receive a slice of Otago's winnings, which Auckland chief executive Andrew Eade said would help pay for a player like Symonds.

"We are looking at some options about whether we could get a cameo from Andrew Symonds," Eade said. "That's still on the table. One of the options we are looking at is if even we brought someone out for the whole season we would explain to them that, for one game maybe, we would play someone like Andrew.

"We want to make Twenty20 exciting and we want to get crowds along. It also opens up possibilities with businesses where previously we didn't have that much to offer.

"Now we can attract decent crowds and sponsors might want to be involved in that.

"I have no doubt if we had Andrew Symonds playing for us in one game we would get 1000 more people coming along."

Symonds is a two-time World Cup winner but has a chequered past.

In June he was sent home from the 2009 Twenty20 World Cup, his third suspension, expulsion or exclusion from selection in the space of a year. His central contract was then withdrawn but he said soon after he would chase marquee contracts around the world.

He also famously called the New Zealand wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum " a lump of shit" when McCullum was brought in by the New South Wales Blues to play in the KFC Twenty20 final against Victoria, despite McCullum's not having played at all for the Blues previously.

Symonds isn't available for the entire New Zealand competition because he is due to turn out for Queensland in their appropriately-named Twenty20 Big Bash. Their competition, however, is only five rounds, opening up the possibility of playing for Auckland towards the end of January.

The Aces will field a strong side. With the New Zealand team not scheduled to play at that time, Auckland will be able to call on the likes of Martin Guptill, Kyle Mills, Scott Styris, Daryl Tuffey, Chris Martin, Gareth Hopkins and Reece Young. They will also have Zimbabwean Colin de Grandhomme, who is seeking New Zealand residency in the hope of playing for the Black Caps.

Although Eade wouldn't divulge who their main target was, the pool of players is limited largely to Sri Lanka, West Indies, Bangladesh and some England players because of internationals being played at the same time.

Canterbury are the only province not chasing an import. They have South African duo Kruger van Wyk and Johannes Myburgh who are both in the process of qualifying for New Zealand and Craig McMillan will also play in the Twenty20 competition.

Central Districts chief executive Blair Furlong said they hoped to get an import for both the Twenty20 and one-day competitions but Twenty20 was their priority.