Cricket: Gooch's touring party looks forward to rare taste of match practice
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The England A tour manager, Graham Gooch, yesterday insisted there was no reason for concern over his side's lack of match practice ahead of tomorrow's opening warm-up game against a Presidents' XI here in Colombo.
The 14-strong party have been restricted to just three days' cricket in the opening two-and-a-half weeks of their tour, after East Africa's heaviest rainfall in decades decimated the Kenya leg of the trip.
It has left the tourists without any match practice since their washed- out three-day game against Kenya in Nairobi a week ago, and attempts to hastily arrange a contest among themselves failed because the Sri Lankan Board was unable to supply a suitable pitch.
However, despite the obvious frustrations in the build-up, Gooch is confident his squad will be ready for the opening unofficial Test against Sri Lanka A at Kurunegala in a fortnight. "There comes a time when you can only have so much of nets, especially before you start playing in earnest," Gooch admitted. "We will obviously be practising between matches but the guys are desperate to get out into the middle and play.
"We are now having to use the one-day game on Saturday and the matches next week to make sure we are ready. It's not ideal but we still have a lot of cricket to play and get ourselves sharp before the first Test."
The England Under-19 side suffered a humiliating three-wicket defeat to Bangladesh at the MTN Under-19 World Cup in Pretoria yesterday - but they still qualified for the Super League stage of the tournament on net run rate.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments