For the third year running, the first-class match will be played under floodlights with a pink ball at the Zayed International Cricket Stadium. It will be preceded by the Emirates Airline Twenty20 – a four-way tournament featuring MCC, Lancashire, Durham and Sussex – played at 7he Sevens Stadium in Dubai on 23rd March. This will provide valuable preparation for the IPL for Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, who then depart before the Champion County match to prepare for the Rajasthan Royals’ and Pune Warriors’ campaigns respectively.
Ramprakash will be leading sides featuring a blend of youth and experience and drawn from five countries and eight English counties. The last time he wore MCC’s colours was as an England tourist to South Africa in 1995.
The side aiming to repeat MCC’s success on the field against Nottinghamshire in 2011 includes two spinners – Durham’s Ian Blackwell and Surrey’s Gareth Batty – who have played for England, and Worcestershire’s Moeen Ali who represented the England Lions against England at the Zayed Stadium earlier this month.
Their spin will be complemented by pace from Pakistan and Derbyshire’s Rana Naved, 19-year-old all-rounder Lewis Gregory – who was Somerset’s leading wicket-taker in last year’s FLT20 – and veteran seamer Alan Richardson who enjoyed an excellent 2011 season, taking 73 first-class wickets. Ireland’s Niall O’Brien is the man charged with taking the stumpings and snaffling the catches behind the stumps.
Glamorgan’s Gareth Rees and Northampton’s Stephen Peters will hope to lay a solid foundation at the top of the innings on which Ramprakash and former MCC Young Cricketer and New Zealand international Hamish Marshall can capitalise. Peters has the advantage of having played with the same pink Kookaburra G3 ball with white seam when he represented MCC in last year’s fixture.
On his inclusion in the MCC squad, Ian Blackwell said,
“It’s a real privilege to represent the MCC in Abu Dhabi against the Champion County, I’m really looking forward to it. It was a brilliant occasion when Durham played there in 2010 and it’ll be a great way to start off my season. It’s a good opportunity to play alongside some talented players from the county circuit as well as giving me the chance to check out Lancashire’s form for the coming year!”
John Stephenson, MCC’s Head of Cricket, who selected the team said:
“I am delighted to be returning to Abu Dhabi for the third year to play the Champion County match. It gives the Club a superb opportunity to test the pink ball in an excellent international ground, and I believe the players we have brought together will be able to exploit the conditions and use the match as a valuable warm up for the season ahead.
Mark Ramprakash, MCC’s captain, said:
“It’s a great pleasure to be back in MCC’s colours after so many years, all the more so given I was originally picked to play in this match in 2010 but was unable to – it’s fantastic to get another opportunity. I have never played with a pink ball before and I’m looking forward to negotiating this new challenge. Any innovation – such as floodlit cricket using pink balls – which could help increase the popularity of the game is to be welcomed.
“I am looking forward to captaining such diverse cricketers. I believe there is much to be gained from playing alongside different team-mates, from new skills on the field, to friendships off it, and I’m very much looking forward to the trip.”
The match will be attended by Tim May, the CEO of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Federations, and Rob Elliot, the Managing Director of Kookaburra, in order to hear feedback from the players about the ball. MCC is committed to conducting rigorous trials on pink balls in order to build up a sufficiently compelling body of evidence for their use in day/night Test cricket.
Mark Ramprakash (England and Surrey)
Moeen Ali (England Lions and Worcestershire)
Gareth Batty (England and Surrey)
Ian Blackwell (England and Durham)
Rahul Dravid (Emirates Airline Twenty20 only) (India)
Sourav Ganguly (Emirates Airline Twenty20 only) (India)
Lewis Gregory (England under-19s and Somerset)
Hamish Marshall (Champion County match only) (New Zealand and Gloucestershire)
Rana Naved (Champion County match only) (Pakistan and Derbyshire)
Niall O’Brien (Ireland and Northamptonshire)
Stephen Peters (Northamptonshire)
Gareth Rees (Glamorgan)
Alan Richardson (Worcestershire)