Derbyshire will go on a pre-season tour to Abu Dhabi for a second successive year, the club have announced.
The squad will fly to the United Arab Emirates on Saturday 7 March and will spend nine days based at the state-of-the-art Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium, which has become established as the venue for the Champion County match, before returning home on Monday 16 March.
Derbyshire will compete in both red- and white-ball action against first-class opposition on a trip that has been enabled by sponsorship from Briggs of Burton, a global engineering firm which has pledged a five-year partnership with the club.
Derbyshire elite performance director Graeme Welch, whose side came fourth in Division Two this year after winning five of their last six LV= County Championship games, said: “We’re really grateful to Briggs of Burton for making this possible. Getting outside and practising on grass, in top facilities, is the best possible way to prepare for the new season.
“During our great run at the end of last season, a lot of it was things coming together that we worked on in Abu Dhabi. It was a good trip last year and we are happy to be returning again.”