Cricket: Squad must gel in the heat
SURREY head off to the boiling heat of Mumbai tomorrow with coach Alan Butcher intent on promoting teamwork.
Family business: Surrey skipper Mark Butcher and coach Alan Butcher unveiled Surrey's new
Relegated to the second division of the Liverpool Victoria County Championship for the first time, they are determined to make an immediate return.
Players reported back to The Oval on March 1 and have been busy on fitness work and indoor nets.
But the cold conditions have meant getting outside for more meaningful practice has been impossible, so the trip to India – sponsored by Royal Sweets – should prove beneficial.
Swapping 40-degrees fah-renheit for 40 celsius, the nine-day visit will see the squad based at the World Cricket Academy and play a one-day match against first-class side Mahashtra.
Butcher said: "There's some cricketing merit in going there but the main object is to focus on teamwork and getting everyone gelling."
He admitted that the disasters of last summer had required divisions in the dressing room to be healed, adding: "We've had a chance for people to get together, talking things through and getting some feedback. It's vital that players appreciate one another's strengths and weaknesses. Talking about them is only one stage but it's a vital one."
Skipper Mark Butcher is back in full training after missing much of last season with a wrist injury initially suffered on England's 2004-5 trip to South Africa. An operation in Novem-ber finally appears to have sorted out the problem which ruined his benefit season and caused him to miss the Ashes series.
Butcher snr revealed that former Gloucestershire wicketkeeper Stephen Pope, 23, will stand in should Surrey's first-choice Jon Batty be injured. Former deputy Andrew Hodd has returned to Sussex with no successor identified yet.
Surrey players signed autographs and met young supporters when the Guildford Trade Show was staged at the Surrey Cricket Centre on Monday. The centre is supported by the Stuart Brown Partnership.
Surrey's Academy squad were training on Monday in readiness for their trip to South Africa, where they won all six matches last year.