Nottinghamshire are playing their first match of 2015 today when they begin a two-day friendly against the Combined Campuses and Colleges.
The match, the opening one on the Outlaws’ pre-season tour of Barbados, takes place in the north west of the island at North Stars CC.
Combined Campuses and Colleges will be a similar set up to MCCU centres in the UK, with young, talented cricketers from all over the Caribbean aiming to prove themselves.
With 90 overs of play scheduled for each day, the sides will alternate with 60 overs of batting and 30 overs in the field on each day.
The opposition will be eager to impress, as Mick Newell, Nottinghamshire’s Director of Cricket, points out.
“They’ll be young and keen to do well. They’ve recently been excluded from the domestic first-class competition so will be looking to prove a point by the level of their performances," he said.
Newell concedes that circumstances have left him with a slightly unbalanced squad for this tour, but hopes they all get something out of it.
“There’s a lot of bowling here so we’re going to share that around during this first two-day game,” he said. “We’ve got about 12 bowlers here out of the 15 that are available to play.
“We’ve got less batters, with those away with England and a couple out injured, so it’s a slightly-bowling heavy outfit, but we’ll have a good work-out over two days.”
With one month to go until the LV= County Championship opener against Middlesex, the pre-season tour is about competition for places, particularly for the less experienced members of the party.
“There are a number of places up for grabs, Newell added.
"With two of our front-line batters out injured we’re down on numbers there.
“Bowling wise, there’s the overseas player to fit in but there’s three other spots to go alongside him and that the challenge for them.
“Pre-season tours are always more important for some players than others. There are people who are young and trying to push their name forward and it’s always more important for them to try and push their claim, as opposed to one or two of the senior guys who are probably comfortable about playing.
"But we still want to go back in good nick having had five or six days of good cricket.
"There’ll certainly be opportunities for some of the top-order batsmen.
“There’s no Hales, Taylor, Lumb or Libby here, so there’s plenty of opportunity for specialist batsmen, so people like Greg Smith and Steven Mullaney will get plenty of opportunity to hopefully show that they should be the ones making up the team when we get back.”
Nottinghamshire v Combined Campuses and Colleges takes place over two days (March 11/12) at North Stars CC, with play beginning at 10am local time (2pm UK time) each day.