Squad set for Desert Springs training camp in March

The Derbyshire squad will journey to Desert Springs in Spain for a week-long warm weather training camp, starting on Monday 7 March.

New Head of Cricket, Mickey Arthur, is keen to get the squad training outdoors as early as possible, as he looks to create simulated match practice and intense fitness and fielding under the Spanish sun.

The squad will arrive back in the country on Monday 14 March, ten days before the first pre-season friendly against Lancashire at The Incora County Ground, with games against Nottinghamshire and Oxford UCCE also planned.

This is not the first time Derbyshire have used Desert Springs to prepare for a new season, having also used the venue as a training camp in 2019.

The 2022 LV= County Championship season gets underway on Thursday 7 April, as Arthur takes his side to face Middlesex at Lord’s, a ground on which the new Head of Cricket has never lost a red ball fixture.

“Desert Springs gives us an opportunity to work hard in a warm environment,” Arthur said.

“There will be a lot of hard physical training and a lot of fielding work, which is not necessarily the easiest thing to do in the UK at the moment, we certainly can’t do it outside.

“There will be a lot of match-simulation practice, because I think that’s what our programme will need by that time. The, once we are back, we can start working outside in conditions which we are likely to expect in the first couple of weeks of the season.”

Watch the video above for Mickey’s full pre-season preview.

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