Nottinghamshire’s players head off to Barbados today to step up their pre-season preparations in a competitive environment.
For the fourth year running Notts are taking part in the island’s pre-season camp which, this year, also features Northants, Hampshire and Warwickshire.
Notts are taking 16 players on tour, with several of them looking to stake their claims for a place in the opening rounds of the county championship.
Mick Newell, director of cricket, feels the climate and facilities at Notts’ disposal are ideal for sharpening the players’ match fitness.
“This will be the fourth year running that we’ve taken the players to Barbados," he said.
"We are fortunate to have some excellent practice facilities to use and there is a little bit of a competitive feel about things with the T20 Cup competition.
"We’ve won it for the last two years and are desperate to make it three in a row.”
The players will again be using the practice facilities at the Franklyn Stephenson Cricket Academy before they play a 2-day match against the Combined Campuses and Colleges at North Star Cricket Club later this week.
At the weekend they defend their Barbados T20 Cup title, with the tournament being held at the 3Ws Oval on the Cave Hill Campus this year.
Notts end their programme of tour matches with a 2-day game against Hampshire CCC at the Desmond Haynes Oval at Carlton CC.
With the England boys still on World Cup duty and Michael Lumb remaining behind to recuperate after surgery on his arm injury, a couple of academy youngsters have been given the opportunity of joining some of the senior players on tour.
Tour party; Chris Read (captain), Riki Wessels, Greg Smith, Steven Mullaney, Samit Patel, Will Gidman, Jake Ball, Luke Fletcher, Sam Wood, Andy Carter, Harry Gurney, Luke Wood, Brett Hutton, Adam Tillcock, Matthew Carter and Daniel Freeman.