Club Update: Pre-Season Tour

Derbyshire Men’s pre-season tour of Zimbabwe has been cancelled, with the squad now heading to Desert Springs, Spain, for a six-day training camp later this month.

Derbyshire were initially booked for a two-week pre-season tour of Zimbabwe, from Monday 9 March, to prepare for the new season before playing friendlies against Leicestershire and Leeds/Bradford UCCE.

However, the Qatar Airways flights booked for the tour, scheduled to pass through Doha, have been cancelled due to the ongoing conflict in the region and alternative routes were not financially viable for the Club on short notice.

In recent days, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Worcestershire and Glamorgan have all announced cancellations or alterations to their pre-season tours, and due to further uncertainty around the return journey, Derbyshire have now cancelled the planned trip to Zimbabwe and will instead return to Desert Springs for an outdoor training camp in Spain from Saturday 14 – Friday 20 March.

Head of Cricket, Mickey Arthur, said: “Due to the huge disruption to travel worldwide means we cannot go ahead with our trip to Zimbabwe.

“We thank Zimbabwe Cricket for their understanding and co-operation throughout this process, we have had to move quickly to ensure our players can get a good amount of outdoor training before the new season and we are pleased to have secured a top-level facility in Desert Springs on short notice.

“This is a crucial part of our pre-season preparation, it allows our players to train on grass pitches and get some good work in their legs outdoors. It also gives us the opportunity to discuss our plans for the new season, which we are all optimisitc for.”