Cricket: Lee brings his pace to to Firebirds for summer

Brett Lee has been out for five months. Photo / APN

Former Australian fast bowler Brett Lee is the latest high-profile overseas signing for the domestic Twenty20 competition this summer.

Lee is to join Wellington, ending months of negotiations as he seeks to relaunch his career after five months on the sidelines with an elbow injury. The 33-year-old will play five matches for the province, missing half of their programme because of his state commitments with New South Wales.

Lee will join England allrounder Luke Wright in the Wellington side for the competition in December.

They are just two of a growing number of overseas players targeted by New Zealand teams for the Twenty20 competition.

Northern Districts last week confirmed the signings of South African opening batsman Herschelle Gibbs and Australian top order players Brad Hodge and David Warner.

Cricket Wellington chief executive Gavin Larsen yesterday said Lee would debut for the province in the home match against Auckland on December 14.

Lee retired from test cricket in 2008 as the fourth most successful Australian bowler of all time with 310 wickets in 76 matches. He also has 324 one-day wickets from 186 matches, with his last one-day international being against India in October last year.

Wellington head coach Anthony Stuart, a former New South Wales representative who played alongside Lee in 1997-98, said Lee would be a great asset to the team.

"Not only will Brett run in hard and provide a cutting edge to our attack, he will also offer us extra batting power in the middle to lower order and he is a top fielder."

- NZPA