Giles White Hails Productive Pre-Season Tour

Director of Cricket Giles White is pleased with Hampshire’s preparations for the huge year ahead after a productive pre-season tour to Barbados.

Hants played two T20 matches and two-day friendlies against Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire during the trip, which saw both the batsmen and bowlers enjoying valuable time in the middle.

Despite being the fifth consecutive year that Hampshire have made the pre-season trip to the Caribbean, White feels there were many differences this time around although the club got everything we wanted out of it and now it’s back to the hard graft at the The Ageas Bowl before the start of the season.

Alongside getting some time in the middle, the pre-season tour is always a great opportunity for players to stake a claim for a first team place for the start of the season. And White admits some of the younger players have impressed him and the coaching staff. Tom Barber bowled with a lot of pace and showed the potential he has got alongside Basil Akram who also performed really well.

Two new Hants signings Owais Shah and Yasir Arafat both made the trip to Barbados and White feels their experience was extremely valuable to many of those in the group.

Hampshire face Surrey in their first pre-season friendly at the The Ageas Bowl this season, starting on Saturday (28thMarch).