Join The Royals on Their Pre-Season Tour of Barbados

Royals all-rounder Hamza Riazuddin celebrates the wicket of Barbados' Javon Searles in January

Meet the team, watch the matches, enjoy Barbados!

Hampshire Cricket is pleased to confirm the Club will once again be travelling to Barbados for their pre-season preparation.

And the exciting news for fans is that the Club has joined up with Official Twenty20 shirt sponsor and Travel Partner, the Barbados Tourism Authority, as well as Official Travel Partner, Virgin Atlantic and Smile Group Travel to offer a tour package to join the team in the Caribbean.

The tour departs on 15 March and provisionally takes in matches against Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Warwickshire as well as a dedicated one-day Twenty20 competition before flying back on 27 March.

The package includes return flights with Virgin Atlantic (and all relevant taxes), accommodation (and all relevant charges and taxes), tour merchandise, tickets to matches, a drinks reception at the British High Commission, access to a Hampshire Cricket players’ drinks party and invitation to the prize-giving drinks party which follows the T20 tournament. Barbadian Hampshire legend, Gordon Greenidge will even be present at a number of events as well as the current first team.

Other options include a Catamaran Cruise, Inter County Golf Classic Entry, Round the Island Safari, and a Rum Factory Tour as well as surf and scuba diving tuition. Packages start from £995 and can be booked by contacting Smile Group Travel on 020 7537 9844 or emailing info@smile-group-travel.com, quoting HANTS1.

Vice President of Marketing, Europe at the Barbados Tourism Authority, Petra Roach said; “It’s great to have the Hampshire squad back in Barbados for the second successive season, and to be able to invite their fans to come and join us will make the whole tour extra special.

“With so much on offer in Barbados, there is something for everyone so in between watching the cricket, there will be plenty of opportunity to relax, enjoy the beautiful surroundings and have a great time.”

It will be the third time in two years that the Hampshire squad have been out to Barbados having reached the Final of the Caribbean T20 competition early in 2011 followed by a highly successful pre-season there in March. This year, the Rose Bowl side’s season starts with a home LV= County Championship match against Gloucestershire on 12 April.

First XI Coach, Giles White said, “It’s very important to get everything right before the first game and Barbados is a big part of that. We’re very fortunate to be going. The wickets are good out there – we saw that last year. [There’s] guaranteed sunshine and it’s essential to get the guys out training outside on turf wickets at that time of year. We’re looking forward to it.”

“It would be great to have some of the fans coming out – that’d be a big bonus for the boys to see some familiar faces. We were lucky enough to be out there last Christmas, when we played early in January in a Twenty20 competition. We had a few fans out with us then and it made a difference. It was good to socialise with them afterwards and there were a few good stories told by a few of the players!”