All Blacks captain Kieran Read has featured in several charity cricket matches and played senior cricket in Counties-Manukau at age 15.

They're familiar tales from the formative sporting years of All Blacks Kieran Read, Jordie Barrett and Israel Dagg.

All were good enough cricketers to consider chasing professional careers - Dagg particularly a feared fast bowler at school who hurried up the touring Australians - before the lure of the black jersey won out and the whites were packed away.

For one afternoon in late January at Hagley Oval in Christchurch, the All Blacks skipper, Dagg and the Barrett brothers Jordie and Beauden will wind back the clock to take on former Black Caps skipper Brendon McCullum and team-mates including player-coach Stephen Fleming in an all-star Twenty20 match.

ROBERT CHARLES/STUFF All Blacks fullback Jordie Barrett was a promising seamer in Taranaki who played for Central Districts A before rugby won out.

It will be nearly three years since McCullum's farewell appearance on Hagley Oval when he blazed a world test record 54-ball century against Australia in his final test.

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The brainchild of Fleming and David Higgins of Duco Events, more details of the cricketing clash of codes will be confirmed at a press conference on Monday, the match backed by Christchurch City and both New Zealand rugby and cricket players' associations.

RYAN PIERSE/GETTY IMAGES In his farewell test at Hagley Oval, Brendon McCullum blazed a world record 54-ball test century against Australia in February 2016.

Each team will feature a yet to be confirmed "international superstar", for a match designed to fill the void of major events in Christchurch since the 2011 earthquake which ended the old Lancaster Park as a sporting venue.

It is loosely based on South Africa's Mandela Trophy, in which the Springboks play against the Proteas, and is being sold as "a highly competitive match" pitting a team of elite rugby players (largely current All Blacks), who might well have been pro cricketers, against some of the biggest names in New Zealand cricket.

Other confirmed former Black Caps are Grant Elliott, who last week announced his retirement from all cricket, Luke Ronchi and Kyle Mills, while two of Canterbury's favourite cricketing sons Nathan Astle and Chris Harris are rated likely starters.

SCOTT BARBOUR/GETTY IMAGES Former Black Caps skipper Stephen Fleming retired in 2008 and built a successful Twenty20 coaching career in Australia and India.

Team Rugby will feature another handy cricketer in Tasman coach and former All Black Leon MacDonald, who helped Marlborough win a Hawke Cup as recently as 2011. Former All Blacks coach Sir Graham Henry - who played first-class cricket for Canterbury and Otago as a wicketkeeper - will coach the side.

Jeff Wilson was the last New Zealand rugby and cricket international more than two decades ago and it will never be repeated in the professional era, with Taranaki rising star Kaylum Boshier the latest facing a big choice between codes.

Read was an age-grade rep cricketer growing up in Counties-Manukau and played his first senior match for Karaka at age 15.

Dagg's bowling was measured in the 140kmh vicinity when at Lindisfarne College in Hastings and as a 16-year-old impressed the Australians cricketers so much in the nets he was tipped by Brett Lee to go a long way in cricket. But Hawke's Bay rugby came calling, offered him a contract and that was it.

The Barretts were both gifted cricketers in Taranaki, particularly Jordie who was in Central Districts' sights as a pace bowler and was once 12th man for the Stags before turning to rugby fulltime.

Hagley Oval is seen as the country's premier test venue and will host the Boxing Day test against Sri Lanka as well as the third test against Bangladesh in March.

But the only Black Caps limited overs match in Christchurch this summer is the second ODI against Bangladesh on February 16, with resource consent issues ruling out permanent floodlights and meaning no big ticket Twenty20s or ODIs against India at Hagley.