Middlesex head to La Manga for warm-weather training camp
This week six members of Middlesex’s pace bowling unit will kick off a pre-season warm-weather training camp at the five-star La Manga Club resort in Murcia, Southern Spain.
England quicks Steven Finn and Toby Roland-Jones will be joined by fellow pacemen Martin Andersson, Ethan Bamber, Tom Barber and Tom Helm for a nine-day intensive pace training camp between February 14th and 23rd.
Also heading to La Manga will be ten of the club’s Elite Player Group, formerly known as the Middlesex Academy, who will head to the resort for a separate six-day camp, where they’ll continue their winter training programme under the watchful eye of the club’s youth coaching staff.
The two groups will be put through their paces at La Manga Club’s impressive new European Cricket Performance Centre as they continue their preparations for the start of the new season.
La Manga boasts an array of exceptional cricket training facilities, including six first-class grass pitches and two artificial wickets on two existing grounds, plus 23 grass and five artificial net lanes – all with 25-yard run-ups. In addition, there are also specialist grass fielding, catching and wicket-keeping areas.
The resort has become something of a preferred venue for counties heading off on warm-weather training camps in recent years, with this year being no different, with Hampshire, Northamptonshire, Glamorgan and Gloucestershire all set to join Middlesex at camps in Murcia ahead of the new season.
Middlesex Cricket's Assistant Coach, Alan Coleman, who is heading out to Spain to work with both groups of players, commented:
“La Manga gives the fast bowling unit a great opportunity to continue the hard work they’ve put in over the winter months since December.
“It will allow them to get plenty of overs into their legs, to continue the technical work they’ve done over the winter and continue to improve their skills - specifically in the shorter format of the game.
"This is also a significant step-up in the rehabilitation and pre-season training programmes for each of Tom Helm, Steven Finn and Toby Roland-Jones, who are all well on target to be fit and ready for the start of the new season.
"For the ten youngsters on the EPG training camp it will be a wonderful opportunity to be able to spend time around the more experienced heads, who can share their knowledge and experiences with the younger group - who will be led in La Manga by Head of Youth Cricket Rory Coutts and his Assistant Mark Lane."
