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Melbourne and Wellington could squad-share in the future: Stephen Fleming

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Stephen Fleming has been a vocal proponent of increasing links between the BBL and New Zealand © Cricbuzz

Melbourne Stars head coach Stephen Fleming is hopeful that a newly formed relationship between the Melbourne Stars men's and women's teams and their counterparts in Wellington could lead to player sharing between the teams in the future.

Fleming was speaking after it was agreed that the Melbourne Stars men's and women's teams will play against Wellington Firebirds and Blaze respectively as part of a four-day trip across the Tasman for preparation ahead of the Big Bash League and Women's Big Bash League this season.

Fleming, who played for Wellington between 2000 and his retirement in 2009, provided the link between Melbourne and Wellington and envisages that the deal could lead to squad sharing in the future.

"It seems logical, if these relationships are developed, that the squads start sharing and probably more Australian players coming here," he told stuff.co.nz on Wednesday (October 26). "There are opportunities, and I think you will see players coming over. That's the relationship we're looking at. Hopefully that comes to fruition."

International partnerships between domestic T20 teams are not new. In 2010 the Rajasthan Royals agreed a deal with Hampshire to form a T20 brand that involved Hampshire adopting the Royals moniker and in 2015 the owners of Kolkata Knight Riders brought a stake in Caribbean Premier League team Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel leading to the team being renamed Trinbago Knight Riders and a number of players being signed by both teams. More recently the Lahore Qalanders and Sydney Thunder, both coached by Paddy Upton, have agreed to a collaboration.

Fleming explained that the partnership could offer Melbourne Stars players not contracted to a first-class state team the opportunity to play competitive cricket ahead of the BBL season.

"Obviously with the Big Bash, there's growing popularity and one of our challenges is that the Australian calendar is filled with first-class and international matches," Fleming said. "We have to get game time for players who aren't necessarily playing first-class for their states. We've been very keen to get games out here in New Zealand. We've got some great players who won't be playing (first-class), so to come and play Wellington in good conditions is just a great opportunity for us."

Fleming has been a vocal proponent of increasing links between the BBL and New Zealand, and last December expressed his support for the BBL becoming a Trans-Tasman competition, something Cricket Australia did not rule out in the future.

For now it seems Fleming has given the relationship fresh vigour himself. "Certainly with my involvement, Daniel Vettori's (as head coach of Brisbane Heat), there is a strong New Zealand connection that's now involved with the management side of the Big Bash," he said.

Fleming also described the scrapping of the Champions League T20 as "the biggest disappointment on the cricketing landscape." He explained that the money from the competition "was allowing New Zealand teams in particular to spend money in getting overseas players." He is hopeful that the new Melbourne-Wellington partnership can go some way to repairing that damage.

The Melbourne teams will arrive in Wellington on December 5. After playing behind-closed-doors matches on the 6th, they will play a double-header at the Basin Reserve on the 7th, which is open to the public.

New Zealand's own domestic T20 competition, the McDonalds Super Smash will begin on December 4 and Wellington Firebirds head coach Bruce Edgar was enthusiastic that the agreement would benefit his team as well. "We couldn't ask for better really," he said. "We're playing one T20, and then there is a gap, a window of about 11 days before the next T20.

"This is absolutely spot on because we would have been having centre wicket training, simulation. But this is the real McCoy now, played at high intensity against very high quality opposition in a quality atmosphere. Hopefully there is lots of people there creating the edge as well," Edgar said.

© Cricbuzz

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