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Ned Eckersley is used to making the headlines – but a winter work experience placement showed him out to write them too!

The 25-year-old, who signed a new contract with the Club at the end of the 2014 season, spent a fortnight at the Cricketer magazine before Christmas.

The Leicestershire players have been encouraged to experience the outside world as part of their winter and it worked out well for Eckersley.

He said: “We have tried to do things slightly differently during the winter this year. We are in all week for a fortnight and then have a week off, which has gone down well with the lads. We are able to train hard and then have a week away from Grace Road to have a bit of down time.

“One of the main reasons we have been given a week off is for us to experience life outside cricket. I spent a couple of weeks in London with The Cricketer magazine and it gave me a taste of a different industry and the life that they lead.

“It was very good fun and similar to the environment we have here with ex-cricketers and people working within sport so there was good levels of humour. It gave me a different outlook on life and I think that’s important in the job that we do, just to make sure we don’t get too caught up in what can be a pretty enclosed bubble.

“You can get caught up in what you believe goes on in the outside world but when I was at the Cricketer, I could see that a lot of work and gritty stuff goes in. You think things tend to slot into place in the media but there are a lot of guys working hard and doing stuff they don’t necessarily want to be doing in order to bring it all together.”

Eckersley is enjoying the variety of activities at Grace Road as the players prepare for the new season. The batsman has been to Zimbabwe and Australia in recent winters but spent this one in England.

“Last year I went to Adelaide, but the year before I was here and I had my best season after that,” he said. “It wasn’t a conscious decision to say I definitely wouldn’t go away but I wanted to make sure I spent some time here with the coaches. I wanted to work one-to-one and nail some technical stuff that we mapped up last season.

“We’re mainly doing a mixture of gym work and cricket at the moment. For example one one day we had a speed session with Crofton (Alexander), who is our new Strength and Conditioning Coach and then had cricket in the afternoon.

“Before Christmas it was mainly an hour of cricket here and there to keep things ticking over but now we are cranking it up and having extended cricket sessions. Those long cricket sessions are also mixed with workshops, such as personal and wellbeing and psychology, so there is a nice mix of stuff that is going on.

“There is a lot more intensity to things now the season is getting closer. We had three weeks off over Christmas, which was a good break, and now we are focusing hard again with the season approaching pretty quickly. It will soon be here.”