West Indies is fast becoming the English cricketer’s destination of choice if January 2011 is anything to go by. Take the Friends Provident T20 finalists, Somerset and Hampshire, who are entering the Caribbean T20.
For both counties, it provides a sense of recompense for missing out on the Champions League that was held last September in South Africa but which clashed with the end of the English county season.
Peter Trego, playing club cricket in Australia and Nick Compton, currently in Zimbabwe, will both join up with the Somerset squad while Craig Kieswetter is expected to feature after the WorldT20 winner was overlooked for England’s one-day series that follows the Ashes.
It ought to be acknowledged that the tournament in the West Indies ticks all the boxes in terms of invaluable experience for younger player players like Jos Buttler who made such an impact on the domestic English season in 2010.
Meanwhile, the English Lions, effectively the England ‘A’ Team as it was once known, also head to the West Indies in January to immerse themselves in four-day cricket by competing in the West Indies Cricket Board’s (WICB) regional tournament involving Barbados, Combined Campuses and Colleges, Guyana, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Trinidad & Tobago and Windward Islands.
For the next generation of English cricketer hoping to oust members of England’s Ashes-winning side, however unlikely that currently seems, then this tour is vital. There are a crop of young, talented English cricketers that are eager to make their mark, particularly when some, including leg-spinner Adil Rashid at Yorkshire, are included in England’s preliminary World Cup squad.
Others who are likely to be pushing hard for an England shirt in any form of the game include Somerset’s James Hildreth who was named captain for the Lions tour, Andrew Gale who is Yorkshire’s county captain and has been around the Lions setup for several years, as well as fringe England squad members like Craig Kieswetter and Ravi Bopara.
The West Indies in January is far from being the worst place in the world to find yourself, whatever your line of work. For an English Lion looking to make the national selectors take notice, there is hard work ahead but it provides a welcome diversion away from artificial lights and indoor nets back home. When England announces its final World Cup squad for India & Bangladesh, there might yet be a new name ready to light up international cricket.
LIONS SQUAD:
James Hildreth (Somerset, capt), Jimmy Adams (Hampshire), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Ravi Bopara (Essex), Danny Briggs (Hampshire), Maurice Chambers (Essex), Jade Dernbach (Surrey), Steve Finn (Middlesex – first half of tour only), Andrew Gale (Yorkshire), James Harris (Glamorgan), Craig Kieswetter (Somerset), Adam Lyth (Yorkshire), Liam Plunkett (Durham), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Ben Stokes (Durham), James Taylor (Leicestershire), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire – second half of tour only).
