New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming looks set to make his debut for Yorkshire in their opening Twenty20 Cup match against Derbyshire at Headingley on Saturday.

Provided there is no last-minute hitch in arrangements, Fleming is due to arrive in England on Friday. The plan is for him to fly straight on to Leeds-Bradford airport and then be taken to Headingley where he will be introduced to players and officials.

Director of cricket Geoff Cope, who has been working flat out this week to complete the paperwork for Fleming's arrival, said today: "We have got the work permit sorted out which means that he can now apply for a visa. I have e-mailed the New Zealand Board to get their clearance in writing for him to join us and then his registration will go to Lord's.

"All this will take a couple of days to finalise and if everything goes according to plan then Fleming should make it in time to be included in our Twenty20 team."

Having suffered a general slump in form in recent weeks, Yorkshire are taking the Twenty20 Cup competition very seriously indeed and they are determined to win through to the semi-finals and final which will be held at Trent Bridge on Saturday, July 19.

They are to hold a full scale dress rehearsal at Headingley on Friday, complete with umpires and scorers, and the game will begin at 10.30am - which is the same time that they will get to grips with Derbyshire.

"We have chosen the two teams from our playing staff and the squad of 13 for Saturday will be selected immediately after the trial game has taken place," said head coach Kevin Sharp.

"It will be great if Fleming is able to make it in time but most of the other places are up for grabs and everything will depend upon how individuals perform in the practice game."

Unfortunately for Yorkshire and the fans, Anthony McGrath, Michael Vaughan and Darren Gough are all unavailable because they will have joined up with the England one-day squad by the weekend.

More than 2,000 schoolchildren from around the county have already taken up Yorkshire's offer of free admission to the game and ticket prices for adults have been slashed from £10 to £2.

The game was originally scheduled to go out live on Channel 4 but plans to televise it were later scrapped because of poor ticket sales, Yorkshire claiming that they had received little promotional assistance from the ECB.

Updated: 12:11 Wednesday, June 11, 2003