Marshall is under contract to Gloucestershire until 2011 (Getty)

The England and Wales Cricket Board has announced that they will allow Hamish Marshall to play for Gloucestershire.

The ECB had initially rejected his registration because Marshall had played in the Indian Cricket League.

Marshall told the club website: "I am extremely pleased that my registration has been approved by the ECB.

"It has been a weight on my shoulders for the last couple of weeks and I am pleased I can now concentrate on my cricket," added the Kiwi batsman.

Gloucs chief executive Tom Richardson told BBC Radio Gloucestershire: "We're really pleased because we were so keen to get a full batting line-up out for the start of the season.

I hope he goes out in the first game and gets a hundred Gloucestershire chief executive Tom Richardson

"Hamish is really important to us, he's a cracking cricketer and it's a very good result.

"We're ready to go, he's ready to go and I hope he goes out in the first game and gets a hundred."

The ECB are allowing Marshall to play for Gloucestershire as a domestic player, because he qualifies through his Irish passport.

Marshall is one of 10 players allowed to play after his registration was initially refused, but the ECB turned down a further four players' appeals and Richardson thinks it will continue to be a talking point.

"All of these cases are different and I really don't know the detail of all of them, but I fear this issue is going to run during the summer.

"But for the moment, purely parochially, we're delighted that Hamish is going to be batting number three for us on 16 April."