Pre-season cricket training in Barbados remains a favourable option for several English counties, and the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA) is set to roll out the third annual English County Pre-Season Training camp on March 13, 2012.
The 2012 camp has confirmed an all-time high number of participating teams, six in total, including Hampshire and Warwickshire, who are returning for their second year, and veterans Derbyshire and Hampshire, who have attended all three training sessions on the island thus far.
For the first time, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire will complete the camp roster. The visiting county teams will take on each other and their local counterparts Barbados and the Combined Campuses and Colleges.
The growing turnout for this year’s camp, which is scheduled for March 13 through 25, is in part due to the buzz created by the second staging of the event back in March of 2011, where positive feedback out of that event strengthened the BTA’s efforts to maintain the camp as an annual installment on the island’s calendar of events.
Manager Sports Tourism at the BTA, Gregory Armstrong, maintains that the island remains a viable option for hosting these training sessions, and despite the global economic climate, the camp continues to attract new county teams.
Moreover, this year’s pre-season training camp continues the tradition of not only focusing on training, but also encompassing a community outreach element in order to assure dual benefits for all involved. As a result, each county team has committed to adopting a local school, where they will carry out coaching clinics with young cricketers.
Considered the Mecca of cricket in the Caribbean, Barbados now stands amongst the likes of Sri Lanka, Dubai, Aurstalia and South Africa, destinations which have served as pre-training venues for English county teams over the last decade.
For further information on the English County Cricket Pre-Season Training camp, and ticket information for the 20/20 matches at the Kensington Oval on March 20 through 22, please contact the sports department at the Barbados Tourism Authority on 427-2623.
