County cricket troubles for Iain O'Brien

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COUNTY: Just under a year after he tearfully announced his international retirement, former Black Caps quick bowler Iain O'Brien has found himself stuck in cricket's version of purgatory.

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Just under a year after he tearfully announced his international retirement, former Black Caps quick bowler Iain O'Brien has found himself stuck in cricket's version of purgatory.

Despite being at the top of his game, the now 34-year-old stunned his team-mates and the public with his pronouncement at a hastily called press conference in the middle of a test in Wellington.

He said he wanted to move to Britain to live with English wife Rosie and "start a family".

With his black cap officially on the hook, O'Brien put pen to paper with English county Middlesex on a three-year deal. For the first year he was classified as an overseas pro but the expectation was that he would then apply to be considered a local player. It shouldn't have been a problem. His wife is English.

But instead of seeing it that way, the England and Wales Cricket Board recently ruled against both his application and a resulting appeal. The decision has left O'Brien without a county contract.

"The ECB weren't so keen on me becoming a local player," O'Brien, back in Wellington on a fleeting visit to "clean out 15 years' worth of junk from the garage", said.

"We fought pretty hard. We put it to them, they said no . . . it's cost me a fair bit of money in terms of legal costs and it's cost me my job in the UK.

"I have to now try to find another county who will hire me as an overseas player."

Despite the setback, O'Brien has no plans to move home to New Zealand. But he has been in talks with Wellington about making a cameo appearance in the HRV Cup.

It will happen, he says, unless a problem hamstring fails to improve.

Given he's back in the country, the obvious question to ask O'Brien is, in light of his problems securing a county job, whether he'd consider donning the silver fern again.

He sees the question coming a mile away and his response is measured to say the least. It's not really yes. But nor is it a no.

"In December last year when I walked away, it was still a never say never chat that [Black Caps coach] Mark Greatbatch and I had," he said. "You should never burn a bridge.

"I was playing some pretty good cricket and I guess we wouldn't be having this chat if I was playing junk cricket . . .

"But in terms of dates and timings, I won't be around for the Pakistan series; it just doesn't work out.

"Looking forward, my first priority is to make sure I have employment and that means finding a county to play for in the UK.

"If that doesn't quite work out, I may look to be a part-time cricketer and at that point I would make a few phone calls back to New Zealand to say: 'I'm available, let's chat.'

"In the short term, I won't be playing for New Zealand. But I may look at it again down the track."

But don't expet to see any of this on his bare-all cricket blog. O'Brien hasn't updated that for a while and says he has switched to Twitter.

- © Fairfax NZ News