Craig Spearman will not be playing for Central Districts in the new season and there is every chance his first-class cricket career is over.

Spearman, 29, was often a controversial selection beset as he was with inconsistent form.

Just as his career statistics show him just short of some significant milestones, within sight of 1000 Test and One-Day International runs, and 5000 first-class career runs, so he was just short of achieving the sort of permanent status that could have lengthened his international career.

A sweet hitter of the ball, as good in his timing as anyone in New Zealand, Spearman was unable to translate his dominance on the domestic scene into regular international runs.

In 19 Tests he scored 922 runs at 26.34, including one century and three 50s. His highest score was 112 against Zimbabwe at Eden Park in 1995/96.

And in 51 One-Day Internationals he scored 936 runs at 18.72 which included five 50s.

In 85 first-class matches he scored 4889 runs at 34.18, including nine centuries and 24 half centuries.

And in all one-day cricket (Shell Cup and ODIs, as well as other 'official' one-day games) he scored 2926 runs at 23.22, which included only one century.

Spearman was called into international play as a hard-hitting batsman of promise by coach Glenn Turner in the summer of 1995/96. Turner was keen to develop New Zealand's ability to make an explosive start in ODIs in the manner that had been so effective for New Zealand by Mark Greatbatch and Rod Latham in the 1992 World Cup.

But the ploy of having two attacking batsmen in Spearman and Nathan Astle rarely achieved its promise, although Astle has gone on to be New Zealand's most successful ODI batsman.

Central Districts chief executive Blair Furlong confirmed today that Spearman is in London and has no intention of returning to New Zealand for the summer and he has no idea of his longer term intentions.

Leadership of the CD side this summer will again be in the hands of Jacob Oram who made his mark last summer as the skipper of the side which won the last Shell Cup.

Glen Sulzberger has been named vice-captain.

The CD selection panel of Basil Netten, Dipak Patel and Barry Roberts has been retained.

Returning to his Napier home base will be off-spinner Campbell Furlong who is attempting to resume his first-class career after living in England since April 2000. He has been working in Britain and not actively involved in cricket.

© CricInfo