It's just over two weeks until he gets on a plane to head to the UK but in amongst the packing of bags and spending some time with friends and family we managed to catch up with our new overseas player, James Naylor.

We've been blessed with some fantastic overseas players over the last 30 years but never one from New Zealand. "It's exciting to be the first Kiwi to represent Sileby", James said with a smile from his home in Auckland. "Hopefully I leave a good impression of us Kiwi's," he added.

The season has just concluded for the tall quick having been appointed as the skipper for Manakau City Cricket Club, with his side finishing fourth in the table with Naylor bagging 60+ wickets in all competitions.

'Nayls' has a busy time of it as he manages games for Manakau City, representative games for Counties Manakau (the equivalent to our minor counties cricket) along with games for Northern Districts A.

Do you have time for anything else? "I work for my family business growing capsicums, although you guys would know them as peppers. Aside from that, I like fishing, hunting and pretty much anything outdoors and physical," said James from his home in Auckland.

James is no stranger to England, having bagged over 100 wickets in two seasons for Alderley Edge in the Cheshire Premier League.

The stint up north was a good learning curve for the 25-year old right-armer: "I definitely have taken some learnings from those seasons. The lines and lengths bowled at home were a bit different to what I needed to bowl in the UK to take wickets, which took me a bit to adjust to. Also, the different balls were quite challenging to control early."

Like most of us, James' love affair with cricket began as a youngster watching his dad play before being asked to fill in as a last minute replacement and batting at 11.

Since then, he's moved up the order and has added some handy runs at 7 and 8 for his club side as well as taking plenty of wickets and some good snares in the field, coming as he does with a rep as an excellent fielder.

What's to come between now and getting on the plane? "Just a bit of relaxing and working," said James.

James lands with us on 14 April and is looming forward to getting stuck in: "I want to help the club win trophies and contribute with the bat and ball along the way."

Club captain Josh Winterton said: "James will be a huge asset to us and I'm grateful to him for agreeing to join us for the coming season."

"I'm looking forward to welcoming him back to the UK and to Sileby Town on 14 April and can't wait to see him in Sileby colours and to see what he can help the club achieve this year."