New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming was Friday cleared by doctors to join his team-mates on their cricket tour of Australia, team officials said. Fleming, who has been suffering from a virus contracted during New Zealand's tour to Bangladesh last month, will arrive here on Saturday from New Zealand ahead of next week's first of two Test matches against Australia in Brisbane. Team officials said they expect the influential left-handed batsman to be fit for the first Test against Australia, starting on Thursday.
The 31-year-old, regarded as one of the more astute captains in Test cricket, has played 87 Tests for his country and scoring 5,566 runs at 39.75 with eight centuries.
All-rounder Scott Styris is standing in as New Zealand's captain in the current tour match against New South Wales at the Sydney Cricket Ground, which got underway on Thursday.