Nottinghamshire’s Director of Cricket has hailed the county’s fifth pre-season tour of Barbados as a great success.
On the eve of the squad’s departure from the Caribbean, Mick Newell said, “Once again, it’s been very well organised. We’ve been lucky with the weather, so all in all we’ve got everything out of the trip that we wanted to get.”
The only downside to the tour was a run of injuries and illness. “That has been unfortunate and means that three or four have not been able to play a major part,” he said. “That means for the next two weeks, once we get back to England, it becomes more important because we want to have a full squad to choose from.
“Once you start to play matches or do training at a higher level you expect to pick up the odd injury, which is what has happened over here.
“Sam Wood picked up a hamstring injury in the T20 competition, Luke Fletcher has had a sore knee and Will Gidman went over on his ankle in training. I’m hopeful that Fletcher and Wood would be taking a fairly involved part in the rest of pre-season, I’m not sure about Will, although he’s back on his feet and training, which is obviously encouraging.”
There has also been a spot of illness about in the camp. “That is unusual for us, we haven’t had that sort of thing before, but we’ve had two or three lads that have been battling for large parts of it; Brendan Taylor probably being the worst of those with a viral infection. It’s been a test of the thirteen that have stayed fit because they have had to do the majority of the match play.”
The decision to send the bowlers away for some earlier warm climate training appears to have paid dividends, according to Newell, “The bowlers look to have benefitted from the stint they had in Dubai. They look as if they’ve bowled outside and look to be a little bit further on than normal.
“We’re hopeful that when we get back to English conditions will be dry and we can carry straight on and get playing outdoor cricket, we don’t want to have to return to indoor nets if we can help it.
“Most of the batsmen have spent time in the middle during the tour. I’m very pleased with what we’ve been able to get out of the matches. The people that have been fit have had to do a lot of the work because we’ve had a slightly limited squad to pick from but all the batters are going to go back feeling in pretty good touch, I hope, and the competition for places will continue when we get home.”
The 2015 season saw dramatic last-gasp four day victories, thrilling limited-overs contests and an historic Investec Ashes Test, all in the unique surroundings of Trent Bridge.
Next season, we’d wager, will be no less enthralling and frankly we’d hate for you to miss out.