"We're ready for unique format" - Nixon
Tue 14 Apr 2020
Leicestershire CCC Head Coach Paul Nixon is relishing the opportunity to get stuck into a new format at the start of the 2020 season.
With no County Championship cricket possible due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the Foxes take on Surrey in a new form of cricket that nobody would have predicted a few months ago.
It is a 5-over electronic game where once 5 wickets are lost, the innings comes to an end.
The Cricketer Quarantine Cup will be fiercely contested between 11 teams with the Foxes facing four counties based in the south in Surrey, Glamorgan, Kent and Sussex.
Fixtures will be played via Big Ant Studios’ video game Cricket 19 with the first challenge a virtual trip to the Kia Oval tomorrow evening (7pm start).
Foxes batsman Hassan Azad is volunteering his time to The Cricketer to ensure the competition will be a big hit with Members and supporters alike. His Head Coach is backing him to deliver.
Nixon said: “We have trained hard all winter on our fitness, cricket skills, cricket specific movements, and fielding but this presents us with a different challenge.
“It will still be about hand-eye co-ordination but really test our mental routines, powers of concentration and ability to adapt to a different format. Hass [Hassan Azad] is the ideal player for this situation.
“A five-over game is something you have to prepare for in case it rains in a Vitality Blast game so it is something we have talked about previously.
“Hass normally relishes soaking up 300 balls an innings with the willow but this time he only has 30 to deal with using a joystick, so it should be a piece of cake for him!
“We feel that the processes are in place and all of the preparation has been done, so it’s now about how we deal with the virtual travelling and executing our skills on the biggest stage of all – the PlayStation.”
Had furlough leave not come into the equation, Nixon would have had a fully fit squad of 20 to pick from for the game, so the assumption for this unique format is that everybody is available to play!
A live stream of the game will be available with updates provided through social media.
Foxes (from): Ackermann (capt), Azad, Bowley, Cosgrove, Davis, Dearden, A Evans, S Evans, Griffiths, Hill, Horton, Klein, Lilley, Malan, Mike, Parkinson, Rhodes, Swindells, Taylor, Wright.
