Glamorgan’s Director of Cricket Mark Wallace provided an update on the players who will be travelling overseas this winter to play competitive cricket ahead of the new season.
“The players don’t have a huge break after the end of the cricket season. They tend to get October off and return to training from November. But a few will go overseas at different times over the winter to further their cricketing education.”
“Alex Horton was the first to go, as he flew to New Zealand on the 1st of October, and will be joined down there in the new year by Will Smale. Kiran Carlson has gone to play in Brisbane, and will be playing for Sunshine Coast Cricket Club alongside former Glamorgan player Nick Selman.”
“Tom Bevan is heading out to play for Marnus Labuschagne’s club Redlands CC which is also in Brisbane, where I used to play a long time ago. So Kiran and Tom will play against each other at some point. Inevitably we’ll have some guys looking to go overseas.”
Timm van der Gugten just finished his trip to Oman with the Netherlands for a combined ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 (ODIs) and bilateral IT20 series against Oman.
“We encourage players to go abroad as it’s a long winter if you’re just in the indoor school, so any opportunity to play overseas, develop your skills and improve as a cricketer is wholly supported by the Club. We also encourage any extra-curricular activities which is done off the field. For instance, James Harris is studying for a chiropractor’s degree, and we have a few boys in university as well like Ben Kellaway, Asa Tribe and Henry Hurle.”
“It is very important to have a taste of other cricketing conditions outside the UK because there’s only so much you can do in the indoor centre throughout the winter. Going to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa or Zimbabwe tests you outside home conditions. Some of them will look to maybe go on smaller camps to India or Sri Lanka at different stages to improve certain elements to their game.”
“The management believes that the opportunity to be playing and carrying on with their game development in the off-season, especially technical skills which may have challenged some of the players in the season, gives them that benefit to return back to these shores as an improved cricketer.”
Dan Douthwaite was drafted in by Nepal Premier League franchise Kathmandu Gurkhas for their inaugural edition, while Eddie Byrom will fly to Perth in Western Australia to play grade cricket after fully recovering from an injury which has sidelined him since August. Byrom is expected to reach Perth and start training in the new year.
Head Coach Grant Bradburn is off his to native New Zealand, where he continues to monitor the players and their performances. He will return to Cardiff in the new year, a couple of months before pre-season officially commences.