Worcestershire CCC are planning their first outdoor practices of 2020 at Kidderminster CC in March – to try and ensure they are firing on all cylinders for the pre-season tour of Abu Dhabi.
Weather permitting, the County are planning to go through their paces at Chester Road in making the transition from four months of indoor work at Malvern College.
First Team Coach Alex Gidman hopes this preparation work will enable them to get any cobwebs out of the system before hitting the ground running in the UAE where they will play five days of cricket against Somerset.
Gidman confirmed: “We are aiming to get outdoors at Kidderminster before we go on tour.
“Games are important but the players need time to adapt from indoors to outdoors and previously we’ve used the tour to do the adjusting.
“But I’d like to get that adjusting done before we go on tour so we can really make the most of the tour so, once we get out there, we can start competing against each other and give ourselves a real good chance to hit those first few games in good shape as opposed to feeling our way into it.
“Obviously that (at Kidderminster) is hugely weather dependent but that is the idea at this stage, to get all the cobwebs out of the system before we go to Abu Dhabi.”
The County are scheduled to have a total of 11 days of action – with three days play against Warwickshire and Loughborough MCCU – before the opening County Championship match against Middlesex at Lord’s.
Gidman said: “I think, to be honest, it’s all we could kind of fit in. There is only so much time available and we’ve got five days cricket out of nine full days in Abu Dhabi, so that is pretty rammed, three days against Warwickshire and Loughborough.
“Obviously we are a little bit reliant on the weather and so is everyone else. But, if we do get some good weather, then I believe we’ve covered all bases.”
