Richardson called up again by MCC

By Paul Bolton, County News Correspondent

Worcestershire seamer Alan Richardson will provide a link between the final day of last season and the first day of the new one when he plays for the MCC against Warwickshire in the Champion County fixture in Abu Dhabi from March 24 to 27.

Richardson was last man out, bowled by Chris Wright, when Warwickshire clinched the title with an innings and 202 runs win at New Road in September. He will make his second successive appearance for the MCC in the traditional curtain-raiser to the season in an invitation side that will be captained by Durham’s Dale Benkenstein.

This will be the fourth successive year that the Champion County match has been played in Abu Dhabi rather than Lord’s and it will again be staged under floodlights at the Zayed International Stadium and pink balls will be used.

Richardson, who was part of Warwickshire’s County Championship-winning squad in 2004, will be joined in the MCC side by Hampshire batsman Jimmy Adams, Middlesex pair Joe Denly and Dawid Malan, Lancashire slow left-armer Simon Kerrigan, Kent batsman Sam Northeast and Somerset pair Steve Kirby and Peter Trego.

Adams will leave Hampshire’s pre-season tour early so he can play in Abu Dhabi. The Hampshire captain will be with his county teammates in Barbados from March 18 but will leave three days early to play in the season’s curtain-raiser.

He said: “It’s a very unexpected and proud moment. When the phone call came through I expected it to be about something completely different – I know [MCC head of cricket] John Stephenson reasonably well through playing with him when I was starting at Hampshire, so I didn’t put two and two together at all.

“I was very pleasantly surprised and I’m very much looking forward to it. [The pre-season tour] was the first thing I thought about but it’ll give someone else a chance to play some games out there and I’ll start again when we come back.”

Former India batsman Rahul Dravid and Australia paceman Shaun Tait will play for the MCC against Warwickshire and Sussex for the Emirates Airline Twenty20 Trophy on March 21 and 22 in Dubai.

John Stephenson, MCC's head of cricket who will manage the MCC team in the UAE, said: “Since the decision was first made four years ago to play the Champion County fixture in Abu Dhabi as a day-night match, national cricket boards from around the world have subsequently trialled the format.

"All of this research has recently culminated in the ICC officially sanctioning the possibility of playing day-night Test cricket, which MCC has been calling for since 2009 in a bid to re-energise Tests in countries where crowds are falling.

"The fact that evidence from previous Champion County fixtures has contributed to this decision greatly highlights MCC’s global research and development role, and the 2013 match against Warwickshire will build on this platform."

The final two players for the MCC side to face Warwickshire in the 2013 Champion County match will be announced shortly.


Date: 23/01/2013 12:10:16 by Paul Bolton
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