Hampshire Cricket Confirm Pre-Season Friendly Plans
Mar 12 2012
Hampshire Cricket can confirm details of their pre-season friendlies, including their tour of Barbados and season-approach fixtures.
While in the Caribbean the squad will take part in two Two-Day matches against Warwickshire (Monday 19 – Tuesday 20 March) and Leicestershire (Saturday 24 – Sunday 25 March), both starting at 2pm GMT and held at Windward CC and Carlton CC respectively.
They will also take part in a Twenty20 Knock-out competition at the Kensington Oval on Wednesday 21 and Thursday 22 alongside Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Barbados and a Combined Campuses team.
Their first match in that competition will be against Warwickshire (8pm GMT start) with a potential further two matches in a cup knock out (between the four winning teams) or Plate knock-out (four losing teams) on the Thursday.
On days on which they are not playing the squad will be practising mainly at Carlton CC as well attending functions at the British High Commission (Sunday 18), Sandy Lane Country Club and The Beach House (both Friday 23).
The tour, which has been arranged in conjunction with Smile Tours and through Hampshire’s Twenty20 Shirt Sponsorship with the Barbados Tourism Authority and travel sponsorship deal with Virgin Atlantic, departs for Barbados on Thursday 15 and returns on Monday 26.
The squad for the trip is as follows:
JHK Adams*, Kabir Ali, DJ Balcombe, MD Bates+, MA Carberry, LA Dawson, SM Ervine, DA Griffiths, H Riazuddin, AP Rouse+, SP Terry, JA Tomlinson, JM Vince, CP Wood.
Once they have returned from the Caribbean, the Hampshire squad will play one Two-Day friendly against Sussex at Hove over the weekend of Saturday 31 March – Sunday 1 April as well as their already publicised MCCU match against Loughborough University between 6 – 8 April at The Ageas Bowl.
The season then starts on Thursday 12 April with an LV= County Championship match against Gloucestershire, also at The Ageas Bowl.
The club can also confirm details of two friendly Twenty20 matches they will be playing on the Isle of Wight this season.
The matches, to be played at Newclose County Ground on Monday 11th June, will see a Hampshire Cricket XI take on a Professional Cricketers Association [PCA] XI as well as a combined Hampshire Cricket / Isle of Wight XI take on the PCA XI. Start times will be 11.30 and 3.20 with an hour for lunch.
It is the first time the Club has taken a First XI team to play on the Island since 1962, although the Hampshire Second XI did play at Newclose last season.
Hampshire Manager, Giles White said; “These matches will not only act as an excellent warm-up to our Friends Life t20 campaign, which starts on Thursday June 14, but will also provide cricket fans on the Island with a great opportunity to come and see the team perform first-hand.
“Two of our squad - David Griffiths and Danny Briggs - are from the Isle of Wight and both will, no doubt, be looking forward to representing the County on the Island.”